Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions question or questions today will also go to the Premier who represents the Department of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I noticed recently, on a visit to the land titles office, they actually charge for a person to access just to look at their own title. And it's representative of a bigger picture of the fact that these are nickel and dime fees, and I suspect that they don't garner a whole lot of money to float this government. That said, my question specifically to the Minister is, is he aware that an individual, as in a singular person, goes to the land titles office and has to pay, I think it's $5 or $4 to see their fee. Is he familiar with that issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so I am familiar with that accessing some of the registries, like the corporate registries and land titles do involve a fee. I've never tried to access my own. I was actually just trying to do that, but I didn't get it in time for the question. But I would assume I would have to pay for my own information just the same way as anyone else. So I am aware. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not going to quote a fee number, but I think it's $5 and if not, I mean, who cares. It's either $4 or $5; I mean, it's a moot point. The issue is the constant nickeling and diming of Northerners as we go about even just accessing our own personal information, and that kind of seems frustrating when you talk to constituents.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister go back and look at how many individual citizens are actually paying that over the last two years? Now, I'm not talking about corporations or lawyers who are trying to garner access. I'm trying to find out is the everyday person wanting to find a little bit about their own personal information, would the Minister look into that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will look into whether or not we even have that information. I'm not sure whether that information is collected or not. But I can look into it and then, if possible, we can put that information together. But I'm not even sure it's possible. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the I guess I'll call it commitment because, I mean, it's tough to look into something until you know what you're looking into it.
That said, this speaks to the broader issue of the red-tape initiative which then bridges into these little micro costs that annoy the people from the daytoday costs. So that said, if the Premier's able to look into that, or I should say the justice Minister, sorry, is able to look into that, I mean, what else is this government assessing with respect to these micro costs that eat at everybody's daytoday lives? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When somebody needs some information and they want to go forward and get it, in some cases it probably is reasonable that that person pays. It's a user pay system otherwise everybody else pays for that person's access. And so that is something that we need to take into consideration. I understand what the Member is saying. It's some of these small irritants that, you know, impact people the most because they have to engage with those, you know, time and time again. But all the nickels and dimes add up, Mr. Speaker. We're trying to deliver serious services for people. We're trying to deal with climate change and natural disasters. And we want to make sure that we are not that we're putting our money where it's most important. And so am I fully committed to getting rid of fees if people want to look at their own land titles? I can't say that right now, but I at least understand where the Member's coming from. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've already accepted the offer of the Premier to investigate and then sort of take it from there. And speaking to my last question more about the broader sense of the red-tape initiative as we proceed forward, I do agree fully that nickels to dimes, etcetera, etcetera, it all makes a difference, but when we're paying we're barely paying anything for the service, it begs the question it costs more to process the payment than it actually did to do the work.
So I guess my only question, Mr. Speaker, at this point is based on that principle of what is the government going to do to evaluate the red-tape initiative concept in this government whereas in we're spending more in time than we're making in fees and hence it's costing the government money just to process payments. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we are if it's costing us more to deliver it than the fees, I'm not sure we want to increase the fees to cover the full cost. If we did that for ATIPP, it would be, you know, thousands of dollars everyone would have to provide for requests. But when the Member talks about reducing red-tape and this initiative, this is a conversation that I'm really excited to have with the rest of the Ministers because this is something that is across government. We had initiatives last year, the Minister of Finance has a nice little award sitting on her desk, a pair of golden scissors, because we cut so much red-tape in the last government. And this year, I want to see an even bigger pair of golden scissors on our desks because we made advances. This is you know, this is a serious issue, Mr. Speaker. It's all of these little things that add up and that people have to deal with day after day so I really look forward to working with Ministers from different departments to figure out how we're going to go through policies, programs, legislation, and how we're going to create ways to develop legislation in the future that minimizes red-tape. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
