Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

I'm still not certain what the Member is referring to. I have said that I am concerned about the backlog in family law cases, and if that's what the Member is referring to then I am on record as saying that I have asked the board and the department to provide me with options for consideration for how we can deal with that. I've said that both in a letter to the Member and in response to a question in this House.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you. Just one last point for now, just as an observation, I guess. It appears that the federal government provides $1.972 million where the Government of Canada supports the legal aid services initiative to the Legal Services Board. Is there any other funding that this board receives, outside of the Government of Canada and the GNWT providing direct funding to that that we need to be made aware of? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, the majority of the funding comes from the Government of the Northwest Territories, and Canada does contribute a somewhat smaller proportion.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not a mathematician, but if I take $1.97 million, I quickly subtract that from, as I see it, the $4.1 million in the budget, wouldn't that almost appear as half of the budget and not a significantly lower portion of it? Unless I'm missing something. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, we get about one-third of the money from Canada.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Mr. Hawkins.

That will be fine for now. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't have an opening comment, but I do have a question on one issue with regard to the registry for sex offenders, a Sex Offender Information Registration Act that's currently before the Canadian Parliament. Mr. Chairman, there were some questions that I had asked the Minister earlier in the week, and the Minister responded with some information about this. I wasn't clear from his correspondence whether or not this new registry would apply to young offenders in the Territories. Could the Minister provide the answer for that? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, it would only apply if they were sentenced as adults.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ms. Lee.

So without going into the details, a case that was subject to discussion in this House, I believe that the sex offender was 15 when he was originally charged and he may still be under...Actually, maybe I should get information on what age group qualifies for a young offender and, as best as he can, if the Minister could advise as to whether or not the case that we were talking about would fall under this registry had there been a registry or if this registry system was in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure whether or not we could create a registry that we could automatically put a young offender's name on without going to courts to get permission to do that in the first place. That's something that I had agreed that I would look into, as some additional information for Mr. Hawkins, but that's one of the things that I don't have the answer to right now.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. Could we know whether or not it is at all permissible for the prosecutors to ask to have a young offender registered? I guess I'm asking the same question a different way, but his officials must know whether or not this is possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Dent.

Mr. Chairman, again we would have to do some work on this, but because of the whole issue of young offenders and the Youth Criminal Justice Act is that young offenders are dealt with differently than adults. There is a lot more protection of privacy for young offenders. Whether or not we could create a registry that would include young offenders, without us having to actually get a court order to approve each name being added to that registry, isn't something that I can answer today. I will endeavour to get that sort of information, but I'm not sure that we could create a registry that would allow us to automatically put young offenders' names on it.