Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to raise an issue that many of us have brought up in this House and that's the issue of access to legal aid for family matters, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it's been brought to my attention by a number of my constituents that a problem continues to exist and is becoming worse with respect to access to legal aid and more specifically to legal aid involving family law matters. It's my understanding that only the most urgent family law such as custody matters are being dealt with in a somewhat timely manner. Other matters considered less than urgent await assignment to a legal aid lawyer, in some cases for up to a year.
People waiting for legal aid support are being frustrated and are forced to make decisions that sometimes jeopardize their position when their matter reaches the courts. We have people living in fear for their life and who are forced to continue living in abusive relationships, who are living in poverty and who are living in fear of losing their children. All of this is real and severely impacts the emotional state of those who have to live in this environment.
Mr. Speaker, one of the effects of increased development is increased social problems. If our legal aid system is unable to meet our current needs now, the matter will only worsen. There is a shortage of lawyers practicing in this field when the government has to look at recruiting additional lawyers in addition to actively seeking alternative methods of mediation to deal with specific matters that could be settled without litigation. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Allen, in questions posed to him in previous sitting of this House by my colleague, Ms. Lee, confirmed that this department is planning to introduce more collaborative law rather than litigation to solve family law matters. I will be asking the honourable Member to share with us what, if any, progress has been made in this area when he plans to introduce solutions that can result in the backlogs of these cases being reduced. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause