Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister for Justice. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement.
I’d like to thank the Minister for his responses to my colleague Mr. Hawkins, and he’s addressed a few of my concerns, but the Minister mentioned that there is an issue. He also mentioned that he’s trying to improve service. For me, the issue is of costs to the individuals. When an individual who has an order and the order is not being enforced, they must go to court. I’d like to know from the Minister, in terms of costs, I guess, does the Minister have any idea of the costs to individuals through the courts for rental officer decisions that have been ignored and have not been agreed to and followed up on. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I don’t.
I’m not sure I want to thank the Minister, but I guess I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not he would be willing to provide that information. I think one of the things that we have to realize is that taking an issue to the Supreme Court is not cost effective for our residents. We have many, many people who are so totally intimidated about going to court that they wouldn’t even think of doing that and taking that action.
I appreciate that the Minister is going to look at the act, and I appreciate that we will get some kind of action. I’d like to ask the Minister when we might be able to get the information that he’s referencing. He may have given a time frame and maybe I missed it, but when can we look to see the results of the review that he says he’s going to do? Thank you.
I have directed the department to have some results ready for discussion with committee and Members in the fall. Thank you.
I’d like to ask the Minister whether he has any information in another area. The rental officer, as he advised us and as most people are aware, can quite rightly assign fines for noncompliance of rental officer orders. It’s $2,000 for an individual. It can be $25,000 for a business. Can the Minister advise us how many rental officer orders have been ignored and how many fines have been assessed in 2010-2011 fiscal year? Thank you.
I don’t, obviously, have that information with me today, but I will commit to getting that information from the department and providing it to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have anything else that I can ask and get any answers for. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
