Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that most law firms in town -- many of them with fancy headquarters in Vancouver and Calgary -- would think twice before paying the premium rent in a shopping mall that this government is willing to do for the next five, 15 or more years. I'm sure legal aid services are not going to go out of business.
Mr. Speaker, the most important point of all is that one of the main reasons we have such a backlog in legal aid is because the government refuses to pay competitive hourly rates to private lawyers so they will be enticed to do family practice. I think we'd be better off paying the private lawyers more money so they can take on more files, pay their own rent in their own office, rather than government having to open an entirely new office and have more money going to the rent and fixing it rather than to the family who needs it.
So, Mr. Speaker, this is why I'm so appalled and I am not going to let this issue die and I'm going to continue to pursue this for the rest of the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause