Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to revisit a topic I’ve brought to the House several times before. In May of 2008 and again last February I spoke of the need for the NWT to have an ombudsman’s office. The need for this service has not yet gone away, Mr. Speaker. We are one of only three jurisdictions in Canada which does not have an ombudsman. Our sister territory, Yukon, is not one of them. The Yukon does have an ombudsman office for Yukon residents.
There are many, many situations where NWT residents need an impartial arbiter, an ombudsman to assist them with a dispute or a disagreement so they can avoid having to go to court to settle it. Disputes such as landlord-tenant issues that are outside of the jurisdiction of the rental officer, decisions by a self-regulating body, decisions by housing authorities, income support issues where an appeal has been denied, administrative decisions by officials in hospitals and other medical facilities, decisions made by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission. There’s many more.
In my last question and answer session with the Minister of Justice I was advised that a number of possibilities exist for someone who has a problem with a government decision to appeal it. I agree with them, there are some. People can talk to department staff, there are appeal boards in some cases and some people can ask their MLA for help. However, none of these possibilities provides an impartial forum and when all opportunities or all options are exhausted and the individual still feels wronged, the only action left to them is to take the matter to court and that’s an expensive and an intimidating solution for most people, Mr. Speaker.
On previous occasions when the establishment of an ombudsman office was raised in response to my questions, the Minister of Justice advised that his department had looked at it and determined that such an office was not necessary. However, he also said that the department would continue to look at options in conjunction with the Department of Executive. I figure it’s time, Mr. Speaker, to find out if either department has done any looking in the last 12 months, so I will have questions for the Minister of Executive at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
