Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is in response to a question asked by Mr. Jake Ootes on April 30th in regard to Small Claims Court Procedures. The small claims jurisdiction of the Territorial Court was reviewed several years ago following the release of the Canadian Bar Association's report on the civil justice system.
At the present time, the jurisdiction of the Territorial Court to hear civil claims for debt or damages is limited to those matters under $5,000. Statistics for the past five years show no increase in small claims cases commenced. More importantly however, the statistics show that a majority of civil cases filed in the Territorial Court are for recovery of damages in the $500 to $3,000 range. Less than 18 percent of the actions commenced in the last five years have been for amounts in excess of $3,000.
Based on the above information, as well as the unknown effect that the creation of two territories would have on the workload of the NWT Courts, a decision was made to retain this status quo. My officials will be contacting other jurisdictions regarding their small claims fees, procedures and the impact that changes have had on the workload of the courts. Thank you.