Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for that response. Another reference is with regard to translation services. Last spring in Fort Simpson, there was a situation where there was an elder who wasn't provided adequate translation services. In fact, it was a gun registry problem. As a result, he lost his gun, but the whole point of what I am bringing up is there wasn't translation made available. What was happening is the courts were just grabbing people from the general crowd and they weren't comfortable in translating because they aren't trained in that particular field and didn't want to make a mistake on behalf of the elder who was in question. So I'm just wondering what steps are in place for court parties to acquire necessary translators as they tour the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps I could ask to have Ms. Kemeys-Jones answer this question. This was before my time as Minister and I'm not familiar with the case.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Shirley Kemeys-Jones.

Thank you, Ms. Kemeys-Jones. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm just wondering what specific processes are in place to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Ms. Kemeys-Jones.

Thank you, Ms. Kemeys-Jones. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't know if this will be in the Department of Justice mandate or not, but what provision is there to help us train community justice translators with reference to legalities, courts and other matters? I think we had a system before, I'm just wondering if it is under the realm of the current Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We no longer have a training program to teach translators legal terms.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Those are just some of the comments I had for right now that are of immediate concern, and I thank the Minister for responding appropriately, Mr. Chair. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Minister, for appearing and thank you for bringing your A team. Mr. Chairman, if we could have the Minister explain a little bit on page 3. We have the access to justice agreement between the Government of Canada and the GNWT. If he could explain that agreement, and what restrictions it causes the GNWT to put into place with that agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, it's an agreement between the Government of Canada and the Northwest Territories in which they outline the support that they will provide to us for legal aid services. It's a negotiation process in which we work with the federal government to determine the size of the contribution and the terms of its use.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this time would the Minister be willing to share the terms of its use to the Regular Members?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

The new part that we're getting funding for is to provide clients in communities with better access to lawyers by allowing lawyers to visit clients at least once prior to the court appearance. It's to be used to recruit and retain an additional family law lawyer, and it's to be used to fund initiatives to recruit and retain staff lawyers within existing positions, and to fund initiatives to recruit and retain aboriginal court worker staff, as well as to improve information technology for all legal aid service staff. The agreement stipulates that the new funding cannot be used to increase the tariff for lawyers.