Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a document that was tabled yesterday by the Minister of Justice and it hasn’t really received much press so I’d just maybe like to ask the Minister about it. It’s the Report of the Northwest Territories Judicial Remuneration Commission. I was looking at it and I guess it’s like negotiations with judges for judicial remuneration, and I see that they got about $1000 a month raise. I’d like to ask the Minister is this correct? That’s it for now. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, one of the hallmarks of a democracy is an independent judiciary. In 1997 the Supreme Court stated that there were three components of judicial independence: security of tenure, administrative independence, and financial security. As a result of that case, every jurisdiction set up a commission, a Judicial Remuneration Commission, including ours, and every four years they give us a report. I think this is the third or fourth report. It’s not a negotiation in a sense but both sides, if I can put it that way, represented by counsel, put their arguments forward. The commission determined that an increase was merited. In the first year it’ll be approximately 4.5 per cent and the three following years it’ll be the Consumer Price Index plus 1.5 per cent. There is an increase and this increase is not really subject to any further negotiation. We’ve agreed to be bound by the findings of the commission. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I respect the separation of the judiciary from the Legislature. Does this increase have any sort of effect on ongoing negotiations or can it be used as precedent? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
No, this is quite different in my understanding from other negotiations, because it’s not a negotiation in the normal sense; it goes to a commission. It would be more like a binding arbitration. I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that this is quite different than any other negotiation the government is entering into or conducting at this time and could not be treated as a precedent. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How well do we pay our judges compared to other jurisdictions in Canada? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, one of the things that the commission looked at was salaries of other judges and I think the salaries of our judges are on a par with other jurisdictions. Mr. Speaker, there are some challenges certainly in living in the Northwest Territories and the judges must travel far more than judges do in the south, so it’s more demanding from that point of view. The salaries certainly are not out of line with the salaries in other jurisdictions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just thought that was something the public should be informed of so I wanted to get the Minister out of his seat. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Laughter
Masi. I’ll take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
