This is page numbers 21 - 38 of the Hansard for the 15th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was health.

Topics

Further Return To Question 11-15(2): Staff Morale At North Slave Correctional Facility
Question 11-15(2): Staff Morale At North Slave Correctional Facility
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 27

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Hawkins.

Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

January 20th, 2004

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Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Minister of Justice will have the pleasure of receiving my questions regarding my concerns with legal aid access when it comes to family law issues. Mr. Speaker, concerns have been brought forward to me by someone in my riding.

I've only recently learned that in fact if you are a person accused of a crime, you have the appointment of a lawyer immediately. However, Mr. Speaker, if you're a mother of two who is desperately struggling to put milk and butter on the table and attempting to get legal custody of your children and you need to make an application in order to get financial support, to request legal aid assistance you have to wait three to six months for your first appointment to start dealing with this tormented circumstance. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister of Justice is does the Minister believe, in his opinion, that a three to six-month waiting period is reasonable access to justice for a first appointment to discuss this family law issue with a lawyer?

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would think that in the best of all worlds the wait would be considerably less than three to six months. It would be better if it could be only a couple of weeks, but the fact is that we can't find enough lawyers in the Northwest Territories to practice family law who are willing to take on these cases. The rate of pay for the Northwest Territories for legal aid lawyers is the second highest in Canada; only Nunavut is higher. But there are very few lawyers who are interested in taking on family law cases, and because of that there has been a growing backlog. We have increased the staff lawyer component to try and deal with this, but it is still a problem area that we recognize.

Return To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister, for your answer. Mr. Minister, my next question to you is what are you prepared to do in a reasonable sense to help assist with this access, so that people can access family law services much sooner? Is the Minister prepared today to reassure me that he will take steps so that all approved legal aid files will receive at least a first-base meeting within 30 days?

Supplementary To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 28

Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish I could make that promise, but as Minister I'm not allowed to provide any direction directly to the Legal Services Board because it is an independent body. The limits are the appointment and revocation of appointments of the members of that board. That's the only action that the Minister can provide, other than providing funding. I can tell you that we have not cut our funding to legal aid at all in the recent past. As I said, we have tried to increase the staff lawyer component to deal with the backlog. I've talked to the federal Minister of Justice within the last week. He committed to me that he would continue to fight for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon to receive funding that is not tied to per capita so that we will continue to receive a disproportionate amount of funding and that we would see no cuts. But it's a situation where we are doing what we can, given the financial resources that we have to work with, and especially since we don't have enough lawyers who are willing to practice family law in the Northwest Territories.

Further Return To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 28

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank the Minister for pointing out the independence of the board. The independent board is very important. Although it cannot be overlooked, the board is also accountable to the Minister. Mr. Minister, can I get your commitment today that you would make statistical information available to the Members of this Assembly regarding typical workload breakdown of legal aid files within the system from where they start as they enter, to where they get their first meetings, and when they come to a relative close, and if you could tie this together with other regions in comparison to the Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Supplementary To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 28

Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that I could provide that information. I will check with the Legal Services Board and see how much statistical data they can provide to us and how quickly, and we'll endeavor to distribute that to all Members of the Assembly as soon as I can get it.

Further Return To Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Question 12-15(2): Access To Legal Aid For Family Law Matters
Item 6: Oral Questions

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The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Item 6, oral questions. Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member's statement, I have a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment with regard to the future of our youth in the Sahtu region. I wanted to ask the Minister if he would enter into a discussion with the Minister of MACA to create opportunities for our youth, between education and MACA, for after-school programs to support our children and to get them off the streets and to give them an opportunity to have a good, positive life and all the good things that go along with the Minister's statement?

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Return To Question 13-15(2): After School Youth Programs In The Sahtu
Question 13-15(2): After School Youth Programs In The Sahtu
Item 6: Oral Questions

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Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to commit to work with my colleague on this issue. It may interest the honourable Member to know that as recently as yesterday, the staff of Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services were meeting to discuss healthy living and active living activities. They have agreed that we will work together a bit more formally to try to pull together a plan, so that we can work within existing budgets to stimulate community-level activities particularly aimed at focusing on youth in the communities across the North. I would endeavor to also bring in our colleague, the Minister of Youth, to this group now and make sure that the four of us are working towards a plan that we can announce perhaps as early as this June.

Return To Question 13-15(2): After School Youth Programs In The Sahtu
Question 13-15(2): After School Youth Programs In The Sahtu
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 28

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Item 6, oral questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister what kind of training and credentials are possessed by and required by people who work in our communities as income support workers. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Return To Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Item 6: Oral Questions

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Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I'm not entirely familiar with the educational requirements for those positions. I suspect that they may not have specific training requirements to begin with. I know that in the past we have approached community organizations, bands and so on, to offer the program, because it has been seen largely as a fairly simple project to fill in the blanks on a form to determine whether or not income support is available. So I suspect that there may be more training that's required, but I can't answer the question in terms of specific training that's required.

Return To Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 28

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Item 6: Oral Questions

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Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think it's very important that we nail that down and figure that out, because the people who come into income support offices do need a lot of assistance and are in a very vulnerable situation most of the time. I'd also like to ask the Minister what support services do these workers have at their disposal, and are they required to refer clients to those services in the communities, such as the ones I referred to in my Member's statement, so that they might not just be back on income support forever, that they might get the kind of help that they need? What kind of services do they get referred to; income support clients? Thank you.

Supplementary To Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 29

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Dent.

Further Return To Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 29

Charles Dent

Charles Dent Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, having answered the question about the training required for income support workers, I think it's also important to say that the expectation is that the workers will take a case management approach. In other words, they're supposed to work with other resources in the community; for instance, the social worker with Health and Social Services who may make available some counselling services. The social worker may have access to psychological assistance if that's necessary, or other tools that may be available. We don't have the comprehensive program we used to. The Member will probably remember from the 13th Assembly, we had the life skills program called Investing in People. Unfortunately, that program was cost shared with the federal government and when the funding was ended by the federal government, this government didn't have enough money to carry on on its own. So we don't have that kind of comprehensive program, but individuals are still supposed to be able to access counselling that is necessary in order to help them improve their chances of being successful.

Further Return To Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Question 14-15(2): Training Required For Income Support Workers
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 29

The Speaker

The Speaker David Krutko

Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.