Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in June of 2000, the Legal Services Board had approximately 120 family cases awaiting assignment.

As of October 2nd, 2000, its backlog was reduced to less than 50 cases through the actions of hiring two legal aid staff lawyers, one in Inuvik and one in Yellowknife, to handle the family law matters. Where appropriated, the executive director conducted case conferences with legal council representing legal aid clients.

However, in spite of these steps, as of February 8th of this year, there is a backlog of approximately 75 cases again. Without the measures taken above, the backlog would have been a lot higher than what it is today.

The Legal Services Board is continuing to monitor the situation to determine further steps that may be taken to try to alleviate the backlog situation here. I am told that we are not aware of any criminal case backlog. That is what I am told. So the problem was the family law cases.

For more specific information, I would like to ask the deputy minister, Gerry Sutton, to also add to this. Thank you.