Thank you, Madam Chairperson. What has happened so far is the work to date has been done in-house. The Department of Justice staff plus the Statutes Revision Commissioner, plus the legislation editor and the project coordinators are able to and will contract out further future work, if required.

Thank you. Lawyer support services. Mr. Henry.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I am mixed up. I am told it is according to the list. I just sat down. It is actually Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Following up in the same area as Mr. Miltenberger. It seems rather strange that we would not be using a contract lawyer to be doing these revisions considering the fact there has been several MLAs who have identified areas where our acts are outdated. If we cannot bring forward to amend these acts because we are told people are too busy getting ready for division and other things; if this is the case; why did we not contract out this work right from the beginning so we could free up our staff to work on outdated legislation and preparing for division?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is important to point out this work is, yes, indeed, complex. I do not believe it takes away legal staff that otherwise could be working on other urgent areas. There has not been a net reduction of what the department should be doing in those other areas.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus. We will take a few minutes after Mr. Erasmus. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand from the Minister's previous answer that there will be some work contracted out. Is this some work that is too complex to be done by current staff lawyers? Why is this particular work going to be contracted out if our lawyers have enough time to work on the revision?

Thank you. Ms. Sanders.

It is not so much the complexity. The idea was there may be peaks and valleys in the work that is needed. Legislative drafters are needed most intensely at certain times because of the legislative schedule. The statute revision itself will probably be kept in-house. If there is extra work at times, those who are doing the legislative drafting work will assess which things could best be contracted out to somebody. It is not necessarily the complexity, but simply what fits with the expertise they have in-house and what expertise is available on a contract basis.

Thank you. Lawyer support services. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is the expertise available in the north to do the remaining work or would this have to be contracted out to southern legal experts?

Thank you. Ms. Sanders.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those decisions are not made at this point. Legislative drafting is quite a specialized area. Depending on the particular drafting task that is being done, it may be a greater specialty. It is a matter of finding someone with a particular expertise who is available at the time. It may be they will choose to contract out the less technical matters or it may be there is a particular project of a more complex nature. The choice is made on a project by project basis. There are times when we do use drafters from the south, normally, people who have had some background and experience drafting for the north because they are familiar with the circumstances, both the drafting style and circumstances in which we work. Those decisions are made on a project by project basis.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the area of defending staff and elected officials for criminal and civil matters, do we use staff lawyers for that particular exercise or do we contract that out?

Thank you, Ms. Sanders.

Normally we would not be using staff lawyers. It depends on the circumstances whether we would be involved or not. There are times where counsel is retained by the government's insurers and those are the people who represent the individuals involved, which is probably the most usual circumstance.

Thank you. Mr. Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have one final question. I was busy with a constituent earlier and I just heard the tail end of a question that Mr. Henry had asked in relation to the criminal and civil cases that the department has been responsible for. I think he asked about the numbers, as well as the costs and the Minister did not have that information on hand. Would the Minister be willing to defer this particular area in case we still have some questions after we receive the information?

Thank you. I was not here, but I was advised that it was communicated. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The short answer is no. I indicated that the information that the Member at the time was asking, would require some time, a few weeks perhaps, to put together. That would be after the budget session has completed, hopefully.