Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to take this opportunity for general comment to highlight an issue that we are all aware of, which is the shortage of family law lawyers and the hardship it creates for the Legal Services Board.

I realize that it comes later on in the budget, but I would like to make a suggestion and have some discussion about what might be a possible solution. What I have in mind, Mr. Chairman, is I do not believe there is a policy within the government about how to give out legal service contracts to law firms. Maybe the Minister could correct me on that?

I just see that having practised in the private sector here, it seems that when we have a Business Incentive Policy and such for other contract arrangements when it comes to work with the government, there is no such thing for legal law firms. I think, Mr. Chairman, what we should be aware of is the fact that the law firms in town are really not any different than small and medium businesses of any other kind.

They hire Northerners. They train Northerners. For anyone wishing to practice the legal profession in the Territories, they usually have to be articled here. The law firms go and spend their own money to recruit students, and they travel all over the South and they spend thousands of their money and time to recruit these students and, in fact, in the end benefit the North because often these people move here and they make permanent residence here. Then they usually get hired by the government anyway. So they do the training and recruiting for the government.

I think we should also remember that many of these law firms have long standing status in the city and the Territories. They serve all of the territories. They serve every single community in business law, in criminal law, and family law. They pay taxes. The biggest law firms, Peterson, Stang and Gullberg, Wiest and MacPherson, they own big buildings in town, and they have much overhead they have to cover.

I think the only way they could continue to do that is if they make sure they get the work that comes out of the government. This is something that I have noticed when I was practicing and something that I wanted to pursue more with the Minister.

We have to remember that they pay taxes. They employ a lot of people. Most of these law firms have ten to 20 employees, most of them long term employees, and they are a necessary fabric of the city and the Territories. All the lawyers are involved in heavy duty volunteer activities. They sit on boards. Almost every NGO board requires people with legal background and these lawyers give countless hours. I think the government could go a long way in recognizing that. What I am saying, Mr. Chairman, is we talk about the shortage of family law lawyers in town. I think that what is happening now is most of the service is done now by volunteer services the lawyers provide.

I think they will have more room to do that if they could look at a contract or any legal work that comes out of the government, where they could have the paying jobs so they could do volunteer work or low paying work with the legal aid. I believe that most lawyers in town are more than willing to give their hours to work for the legal aid so everyone gets legal service.

However, I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and the backlog of the family law cases is horrendous. It is the same with criminal law cases.

There is a shortage of lawyers all over this town and all over the country. I really would suggest that the Minister looks at this. I know that in the last Assembly during the conflict of interest inquiry, for example, you could count on one hand those people who were appearing before the inquiry and who were on public purse for their legal service. They never went to look for local lawyers. I do not know why that when government gives out contracts, local people should be looked at first, yet when it comes to legal services, people who are getting legal counsel at the public expense never have the obligation to look at the lawyers within the Territory.

I realise, Mr. Chairman, that there is an issue of conflict. I would suggest that in many cases, it is not a stumbling block.

If most of the money that was going to legal services that the government is paying to outside firms, if they were not to give out to local firms, they could hire people that could do work independently, but work out of the local firms so that they benefit somewhat.

Perhaps I am just having random thoughts on this, but I think that it is an important issue. I would really urge the Minister to look at it. I wonder if the Minister could tell me whether there is any policy like that. Second, if he has any figures on how much money was spent by the government on outside legal retainers. Thank you.