Thank you. We are on page 9-13, activity summary, services to government, operations expenditure summary, $10.459 million. Agreed?
Agreed.
We are moving on to page 9-14, activity summary, services to government, grants and contributions, grants, $49,000.
Agreed.
We are moving on to page 9-15, information item, services to government, active positions.
Agreed.
We are moving on to page 9-17, activity summary, law enforcement, operations expenditure summary, $35.120 million.
Agreed.
We are moving on to page 9-19, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask a few questions here with regards to legal aid services and the needs that we have with legal aid. When we travelled with the Child and Family Services Act review, one of the things that was made very evident to us as committee members was the difficulties that people have particularly in the small communities accessing legal aid services in terms of child apprehensions and so on. I think there is an increase. I think we are hiring another lawyer for legal aid services in this next year’s budget, but I would like confirmation on that. I would also like to know in terms of the longer term view, what the department’s plans are to deal with the lack of access to legal aid for our clients who are residents who need it. Thank you.
Ms. Schofield.
Mr. Chairman, yes, there is an additional legal aid staff lawyer as part of the second year of funding for the establishment of a new clinic. I’m sorry; I missed the second part of that question. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, going forward, I guess, I need to know from the department what the plans are to try and deal with the lack of access to legal aid services that exists in our communities. Thank you.
Minister Lafferty.
Mr. Chairman, this particular area that the Member is addressing we are fully aware of it. We are planning for, as the Member alluded to, as we move forward, we want to identify what is required at the community level, especially those smaller communities that we represent. This is part of the plan. We have identified a lawyer for this new initiative. The following year we want to highlight what is required and push within our department part of the business planning process. Mahsi.
Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. That is all well and good, but there are people now in our communities that run into difficulties whether it be because they are the victim or they are the person that is creating the disturbance or they are the parent who is having a child apprehended. All of those things. They need access to a lawyer and to legal aid. They don’t have it. There is lots of opportunity for use of technology I would think. I didn’t hear anything in the Minister’s answer that they are looking beyond just hiring more lawyers. They generally happen to be in Yellowknife. If I happen to be living in Fort Resolution, that doesn’t help me much to get a lawyer because they are all in Yellowknife and my problem happens to be in Fort Res. I would like to ask the Minister if he could expound a bit on whether or not the department is forward thinking. Do they have plans to try and create access to legal aid and to lawyers outside of our larger centres? Thank you.
Ms. Watters.
Mr. Chairman, this certainly is a concern for the Department of Justice. Access to justice is one of our sort of critical issues and one of the things we are working towards. A couple of things that we are doing to try to enhance services, short of in addition to hiring lawyers that we need, is to expand the role of court workers so they can provide more services in the communities to people, short of when they do need the lawyer. That may often reduce the need for a lawyer. We have a poverty lawyer on staff now. We are looking at expanding the role of that person and moving towards having them actually go into communities to work with people and help them with their legal issues.
We are moving. Maybe we are not moving as fast as we would like, but we are very aware of the need to get services to the communities and to make all legal services more accessible. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, thanks to the deputy minister for that explanation. Yes, I realize that it is a big job and it is not an easy job. I am glad to hear that it is on the radar and it is being looked at.
The last concern that I wanted to raise here, and this, again, came up at least once during the Child and Family Services Act review when we were on our tour, and that is the number of hours that people get from legal aid for their concern or for their issue. Several times we heard people say that they had a lawyer. They were dealing with a lawyer and they were basically told I have used up all of my hours and I can’t help you anymore. I wonder if the Minister or the deputy minister can comment on that. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, if the issue does require more hours, then it is certainly possible to apply to us for them and to have them granted. It is very difficult to know without knowing the circumstances of any particular case. Certainly, there is that option available. It is quite often used. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I guess just a comment here. I appreciate that specific situations have specific results, but I think there is sort of an educational aspect to this particular issue that needs to be addressed. I don’t think a lot of the people that mentioned this difficulty to us that the number of hours for their lawyer ran out, I don’t think a lot of those people understood that they could ask for an extension. It probably wasn’t offered to them. So I think there’s an education aspect on the part of the victims or the users of the system and there’s an aspect of education on the part of the lawyers as well. I think it’s something that maybe the department could try and address, as well as maybe looking or having the Legal Services Board look at the hours that are assigned for particular matters and maybe loosening their guidelines a little bit, because it sounded from the people that we heard from and what constituents tell me when they have difficulties is that it’s pretty much hard and fast and they say, well, we need a little bit more time and the answer comes back and, no, I’m sorry, you can’t have it. So just a comment. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Comment. Minister, if you want to respond.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member that we definitely need to do more reaching out to the communities so they’re aware of the hours that they’re entitled to and that they can access some additional hours if need be. Just additional information that is required, we’ll definitely do our part to deliver those key messages. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Next I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I notice our spending on legal aid staff lawyers is going down. Now I suspect they haven’t volunteered to take a cut in pay. So I’m wondering what that’s all about. I guess I’d like to ask what that’s all about and is the new legal aid office that was in the business plans going ahead as profiled in the business plans.
Ms. Schofield
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we’ve identified on page 9-19 the Somba K’e Legal Aid Clinic is the new clinic and that will be fully funded in the ‘11-12 budget. I don’t think the legal aid staff lawyer costs have gone down. There might have been a reshuffling between clinics just on determining that we have the right number of lawyer makeup in each clinic between family and criminal law. The compensation and benefits section is actually increased from ‘10-11 to ‘11-12. Thank you.
Is it my understanding is that the Somba K’e Legal Aid Clinic will have one lawyer or more than one lawyer? Thank you.
Minister of Justice.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that the clinic will have three lawyers and a support staff as well. Mahsi.
Mr. Bromley. Page 9-19, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $5.905 million.
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to page 9-20, information item, legal aid services, active positions.
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to page 9-23, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $11.316 million.
Agreed.
Page 9-24, information item, court services, active positions.
Agreed.
Agreed. Moving on to page 9-27, activity summary, community justice and corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.683 million.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 9-28, activity summary, community justice and corrections, grants and contributions, contributions, $2.377 million.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 9-29, information item, community justice and corrections, active positions.
Agreed.
Moving on to page 9-31, activity summary, services to public, operations expenditure summary. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to just state here in terms of the family law initiatives, which we heard about this morning at our briefing, I think the department is absolutely on the right track and the success, obviously, the initial evaluations that they’ve done so far in a number of their programs indicates that the programs are working very well and they’re a success. So I’d like to commend the department for the work that they’ve done there, and I missed the page, but the domestic violence court option is also another area which I think is going to prove to be quite successful.
I wanted to ask about the Family Violence Action Plan, I think we’re on phase 3 now and I wondered where the department is at with this particular action plan. Thank you.
Deputy Minister Watters.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The Department of Justice’s involvement with the Family Violence Action Plan is the development of the program for offenders and we’re getting close to the development of this program. The program is still in the development stage and we hope to be able to move forward with implementing it I think towards the end of this coming fiscal year, ‘11-12.
Thanks for the information. I look forward to when that plan is actually developed and in place. I think it will be a good step forward and I think we then have to look at other aspects of abusers. I know it’s been mentioned we have a program for men who abuse, but there also are women who abuse and I think it is something that we probably have to look at in the future.
I wondered if the department could confirm or dispel a rumour that I heard a little while ago. I know the coroner’s office falls under this particular section and I heard a rumour that the coroner’s office is going to be transformed into a medical examiner office, that we’re going to go from a coroner system to a medical examiner system. Could I get confirmation or denial of that? Thank you.
Minister of Justice.
