Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. I don't remember exactly when it was, but in this House, the issue has already been raised with respect to the court circuit schedule to the communities, whereby a judge and court party goes into the communities and hears the cases that are before the courts there. Not so long ago, this schedule and services were seriously reduced. The number of days in the community and the frequency of visits to the communities were reduced. I would like to know if the Minister has been tracking this, following this, finding out information like how many cases are having to be put over to the next time the court party is back. I still think it is a problem. I would like to know if he is aware of that problem. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Justice, the Honourable Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I was aware of the concern. It was addressed to the House earlier. I met with the chief judge to discuss a number of issues. This was one of the issues that we discussed. The chief judge assured me that this change would not impact on the delivery of justice and that the court circuit would be adequate. I know that it is an issue that is watched regularly. I have recently, within the last few weeks, been in receipt of e-mails discussing the numbers of cases in different communities. In fact, the suggestion is that this has not caused a problem. So it is being tracked. It is being watched. Yes, I am kept up to date on that watch. It does not, at this point, appear to have caused any problems in the delivery of justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sometimes there is a delay or an interval of up to six weeks or longer in some communities between the time that a person could theoretically be charged with an offence and when they would have a chance to have a preliminary examination of that charge in the courts. Mr. Speaker, the Minister himself referred to the increase in things such as drug busts, activity in drug trade, certainly very publicized situations with vandalism in some of the communities like Fort Smith and other places. It would seem that, in fact, the number of cases coming before the courts would be more. We have heard from Mr. Menicoche today that there is a court worker issue, as well, to prepare for these cases to be heard. I do not believe that it is sufficient. The new chief justice is the one who put this schedule into place. The Minister says he is satisfied, but I am not satisfied. I would like to have evidence of the number of cases that are being put over because of this lack of resources being dedicated to our court services. I would like to have that information presented here in the House. Is the Minister prepared to do that?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to contact the courts and see what sorts of information we can put together. I can't promise it for tomorrow, but I could let the Member know within the next 24 hours how long it will take us to put the information together that we can get. I would be pleased to present that information.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Mr. Speaker, I apologize if I am not answering the right question. I was having difficulty hearing the Member in his question. I believe it's important to note that everybody is entitled to have a case heard in court in their language and if they need to have an interpreter, one must be provided by the courts. So the judge is the one who has to be satisfied that the quality of the interpretation is good, and it's up to the person who needs interpreting to make sure that that need is communicated to the court. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The honourable Minister answered part of the question. I would like to ask the Minister also is there any specific policies within the Department of Justice that allows a probation officer, in case some of their communities don't have court workers or trained interpreters in the legal system, in the region to assist clients in the court setting to help them in the proceedings? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to honestly say I don't know whether that's possible. It would seem a reasonable approach if that person was available and if they could provide the service to the courts, but they may have other job-related duties. I'll have to look into that and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Minister. In some cases because of the technicalities of the legal translation into Slavey languages it's really important that we have good trained interpreters or translators to do the work on behalf of our people. I'd like to ask the Minister if he would commit to looking into the use of probation officers who work in the field who could help clients in court proceedings where sometimes we don't have any services in the small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my previous answer, I'll look into that and I will get back to the Member on the issue.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also would like to ask the Minister of Justice if he would consider looking at alternatives for the communities where sometimes it is not possible to have, in terms of the costing and in terms of the travel, different alternatives to

having translation provided in our communities and that he would look at having that done in the communities where a little bit of training could take place for our local interpreters to take and train just in case things don't work out with the workers that come into our communities to do court proceedings? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, perhaps I could talk to the Minister of Education about this.

---Laughter

The Department of Justice used to offer a Legal Interpreters Program. In 1995 the program was ended and Aurora College took over offering the certification program. The program was set at one year and part of it included legal interpretation and health interpretation to help make sure that interpreters and translators could deal with the increasingly complex world today that we live in. Unfortunately, over the years the enrollment in that program has declined to such an extent that the college can no longer offer it because they've had nobody enrolling in the program. I can certainly discuss with the college perhaps looking at offering the program in one or two regions every once in a while to see whether or not there is some interest, but at this point it's been a real problem because we haven't been able to find the interest among people to take the courses in order to offer it. But I will certainly make sure that I have that discussion with the college about rotational delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden.