Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Justice, and it’s no surprise there’s a bit of a theme going on here. My questions are also related to summer students. It’s well known that summer students can start to submit their resumes anytime, basically anytime after Christmas and into January. So I would assume that there are an awful lot of students who are well prepared and who do have their resumes in in January, February and March, but at this point in the year we’ve only hired about maybe not quite two-thirds of what we hired in total last year. It seems to be a very, very slow machine. I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice when the first student that is currently employed for summer of 2011 was hired by the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Within the Justice department we’ve been working closely with the Department of Human Resources since December to identify those students. We try to keep track of the students that have potential to be lawyers, or in that capacity. So of the students that we have, there are approximately eight students and some of them have started. I don’t have the specific dates of when they started, but we want to get those students on board, all of them, as soon as possible, if they’re not on board already. Mahsi.
Thank you. I’d like to ask the Minister, he mentions that there are eight students that are hired at the moment. He also mentioned that the department tries to get students on board as soon as possible. I really appreciate that attitude on the part of the department and I believe there was a previous Minister who indicated that they have most of their students hired already.
Students, when they’re coming out of university, have four months to try and make some money to get them through the next university year and the sooner we can hire them, absolutely the more money they’re going to make and the better off they’re going to be. I’d like to ask the Minister, if there are eight students hired at the moment, last year the department hired 11 -- and to use what, according to my colleague Mr. Menicoche is my favourite phrase -- I’d like to ask the Minister if he can meet or beat that number of 11.
Mahsi. Our goal has always been to either meet or go beyond that maximum target that we have, with the resources that we have currently. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. So with the resources that you currently have in the Department of Justice, I’d like to ask the Minister, will he be able to hire the 11 students that they hired last year. Thank you.
Mahsi. Currently, we have eight students that will be working within the Department of Justice. So that’s the resources that we have. If there are additional resources, by all means, we need to work within the framework or the budget that we’re going to have for summer students. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I have to take that as a no. So I’m really disappointed in Justice if they can’t meet or beat their last year’s goal. I’d like to know from the Minister if he could give us an idea of the number of students, out of these eight students, how many of them will be working in Yellowknife and how many will be working in communities outside of Yellowknife. Thank you.
Mahsi. The information that I do have is eight students will be working within the Department of Justice. I don’t have the breakdown of where they’re going to be working, but I can provide that information to the Members. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
