Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to written question asked by Mr. Picco on January 21st in respect to policy and fees paid for jury duty. The jury fees regulations state that a fee of $40 per day is paid to each person who serves on a jury. If it is a criminal trial, the fee is paid by the Supreme Court. If it is a civil trial, the fee is paid by the party who requested that the trial be heard by a jury.

Every person who serves on a jury is entitled to this fee. At one time, the GNWT had a policy of recovering this fee from its employees, since those who serve on jury duty also receive a paid leave of absence, designated as court leave. However, this practice of recovering jury fees from GNWT employees ended in 1993, as a result of an arbitration ruling, which concluded that it breached the terms of the collective agreement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.