Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are attempting to eradicate many of the shortfalls. As you are aware, there are legal aid plans in serious financial difficulty across Canada. It is a nation-wide problem. Territory-wide we have met with the federal Minister of Justice, the Honourable Martin Cauchon, on October 16th to convey the problems and concerns that because we are a small northern jurisdiction we do have other problems that are so different from the rest of Canada. That was conveyed to the federal Minister. He acknowledged that so we will continue to see how we may be able to improve the level of legal aid services in the Northwest Territories Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that all the Minister of this government convey to the federal Minister about some of their predicaments, but I do believe there is a responsibility on the Ministers of this House as well. I would like to ask the Minister what is he doing specifically other than talking to the federal Minister about increasing the resources available in this program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Specific to certain areas of legal aid, we are trying to reduce the backlog in family law cases. We are planning to introduce more collaborative law rather than litigation to resolve disputes and reconsideration of family law tariffs. We are sending a call letter to the private bar to assist with the backlog. Mr. Speaker, we are attempting to find methods to deal with some of the key questions that the Member raises. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the answer of the Minister, I do not think there is any disagreement that there is a problem with the lack of resources and the people who need the legal services are not getting them, or not getting them on time. I want to know if the Minister is aware of any legal liability that the government might have for those who suffer loss as a result of the untimeliness of their cases being heard or not resolved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hope I can provide a legitimate answer by saying that we are trying to attract legal aid lawyers to deal with some of the outstanding issues and hopefully that will help to assist those who are in the greatest need throughout this process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are many aspects to this question, but one of the things is that when the people go to this office they are not getting the answers even. They are not getting their calls returned or e-mail inquiries as to what is happening with their cases responded to. I would think that the least the department can do is to talk to the people about where they are with their applications and so on. Would the Minister direct his officials to look after that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Justice, Mr. Allen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes we are attempting to find solutions. Again the process we are employing here is that we have been in communication with the Legal Services Board, working jointly from the departmental perspective with the Legal Services Board to see if we can find methodologies to correct some of the inefficiencies and where we have identified problems in trying to attract legal aid lawyers to work on cases longer. Hopefully that will be able to resolve some of these questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister responsible for personnel, Mr. Handley, and is with regard to my Member's statement with respect to indigenous native women trying to find employment in this government; and also being promoted, enhanced and allowing them to take on government positions.

I would like to ask the Minister exactly what are we doing to ensure that we do not by-pass the affirmative action policy, especially when it comes to indigenous native women and also women in general?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government has undertaken a number of measures in the last three years to ensure that we have people ready to take on jobs. This goes beyond advertising and letting them know there is an affirmative action policy. We are now working on a number of these, and they include things like the internship program. We have made it easier in the nursing field to get into mentoring, and there are a whole host of summer students and so on.

One of the main things we have done, though, is we are working on a new program for staffing appeals, so people do not get the job they are looking for and having a more responsive way than what we currently have for people to be able to appeal a position that they wanted to have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, is there a way of tracking exactly how many non-indigenous aboriginal employees have been hired over priority one employees in regard to ensuring that we do have a system in place to ensure when we look at different departments, to ensure that these policies are carried out throughout the government? Is there anything in place to monitor how many people are being hired in different sectors and exactly what status they are?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, as part of the business plan process, each department is asked to provide fairly detailed affirmative action statistics in terms of who they hired and which positions, whether it is management or whether it is a position in the staff somewhere, so all of those statistics are done regularly as part of the business planning process. We report on it regularly as part of results reporting. If the Member wants something more beyond that, then we would have to look at the amount of time it would take to do it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the whole issue of affirmative action employment opportunities should be scrutinized carefully through the whole Government of the Northwest Territories, regardless of where the hiring has taken place. I believe that the practices that are in place are not adhering to the present policy, so what is the government doing to ensure that this scrutiny takes place?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board, Mr. Handley.