Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When the committee was examining the draft main estimates, we had some discussion with the Minister and his staff about the level of support for legal aid. There is some concern among committee members that the amount of money that is in the budget for legal aid is inadequate and the waiting list for service has become far too long.
I know we discussed with the Minister why we would not consider putting more money in. We were told that one of the things the Minister wanted to wait for was the federal study into legal aid, which is targeted to be concluded in 2003.
I would like to ask the Minister, why would we feel it necessary to wait for the completion of that study when we have such a backlog of cases right now? Why can we not advance money into legal aid? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.