Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

What is the average revenue that the department or the division receives as a result of settling this average of 90 to 140 estates during a year? Thank you.

Mr. Pontus.

The average revenue over the last few years has been anywhere from $40,000 to $65,000 per year for the fees charges to the estates.

Thank you. Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Chairman, the government has indicated over the past year its tight funding situation and has encouraged Members who are Ministers to look at other revenue initiatives. We have been looking at an increase in payroll tax, we have been looking at an increase of insurance tax and so on, which have all been new initiatives. I would like to ask the Minister why this initiative is contrary to the government's request for revenue initiative. In fact, it is taking revenue away from the government. Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not have any more questions on this particular clause, so I would suggest that other Members may want to ask questions or we may go to another clause which I may have other questions to pose. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one other question and that is with regard to unknown assets, such as bank accounts, R.R.S.P.s, pension plans, inheritances and wills. How are those handled?

Mr. Pontus.

I believe the question is, what happens to unknown assets, such as bank accounts, R.R.S.P.s and pension plans when we administer an estate. We write letters to all of the banks in the locale where the person resided. We write to local investment companies and we contact the government, if it is superannuation for federal government or territorial government employees, and we also contact Canada Pension to see if pensions are available.

Thank you. Mr. Gargan.

I have one other question, Mr. Chairman. I actually have to involve my own dad who passed away this spring. How are those people informed? My mother has never been informed about C.P.P. I actually had to do a lot of work after my dad was deceased because people out there in the communities do not know what they are entitled to after a relative is deceased. I was just wondering how do people who do not know anything about how to handle things after a death, are informed. I do not think it is known out there. I myself did not know a lot of things until after my dad died but I was not told by your office or anybody from government. In fact, I found it out through other people rather than the government. It was about two months after my dad died that I found out that information. How do you go about, when a person is deceased, providing information to the spouse or the children or the relatives? How is that done? I do not think that information is coming across to those people.

There are a number of ways in which our office gets involved and I should first of all point out that we do not administer all of the estates in the territories. Far from it. There are a large number of estates that are handled by lawyers in the general public. People will visit the lawyer and he will prepare the court documentation, such as we would, and file it with the court so that the affairs are administered directly through a lawyer with the court. The function of the public trustee is to act when there are no family members or friends who have been appointed as executors or administrators who are willing to come forward and take on the responsibility.

When that happens we are usually notified by either a social worker, the R.C.M.P., a nursing station, etc. Quite often, we just get a cheque in the mail and it is made out to somebody who is deceased and somebody said, to send it to our office. When we get notice of somebody dying, we send out a letter of condolence to the family, describing the services of our office along with two forms which allow them to ask our office to administer the estate, if they wish, and also allowing them to provide us with all sorts of information with respect to the deceased person so that we can start administering the estate.

Mr. Gargan.

So the information is not given right away. It would be several days, several weeks, or several months before an actual contact is made with the spouse or the family. Does that sum it up?

Mr. Pontus.

It really varies. We often get phone calls the day of a funeral, or the day after a funeral, or sometimes even a day before the funeral if family members are in town and they want to get things straightened out. They will come right into our office at that time and complete the forms. We then assist them in setting things up at that time. Other times it might be a week later, or a month later that we are contacted and notified about the death and that somebody needs our services. We have opened up an administrative stage for cases in which the person has died a number of years before where there have been some assets or situations that need to be dealt with.

Thank you. Mr. Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One final question. Mr. Chairman, if it is the responsibility of the family to make funeral arrangements, your office does not have to provide any information on how to go about it. From the time a person is deceased and is buried, can the family access money from the deceased's estate to make those arrangements?

Mr. Minister.