Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Final supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So it seems that for a difference of $7,000, I'm going to be embarrassed again and I think all of us should be embarrassed that we can't provide something as straightforward and essential and beneficial as lifeguard services. I think the Minister really has some questions that he should be asking his officials and his counterparts at the city in order to restore this service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. I don't know if I heard a question there or not. Mr. Bell.

I didn't hear a question, Mr. Speaker, other than the Member urging me to continue to move forward these discussions and negotiations and I'll continue to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like my colleague Mr. Menicoche who feels a week can't go by without bringing up the gymnasium in the Nahendeh riding, I can't imagine a session going by without talking about legal aid. So to make sure that we have a legal aid discussion at least in this session, I'd like to bring up the concern that we dealt with during the last session, which was staffing of the Legal Aid Clinic downtown. If the Justice Minister could give us an update on the recruitment of the staffing levels for lawyers in the downtown clinic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, we've only managed to hire one person for the office in the new clinic. That has managed to bring the numbers and the backlog down to 127 cases as of early February. The process of recruiting is ongoing and we hope to fill the second position here in the not-too-distant future.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the legal aid backlog is still at the rates and high levels that it was almost a year ago. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister willing to engage in maybe locum lawyers like we investigate and use locum nurses...

...to make sure we give these people access to justice? The backlog is getting full. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm advised that the Legal Services Board expects to have staffing completed very quickly and that some time very soon we will have a complement of five staff lawyers in the Northwest Territories dealing with family legal aid cases.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The time for oral questions has expired; however, I'll allow the Member his supplementary questions. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, speaking to the concern of the backlog of legal aid and the fact that we needed to create a second clinic, has this Minister investigated innovative ideas about opening up law clinics so laypeople can get a better understanding of the law? Therefore, they don't have to engage the legal aid system so maybe they can help process their own paperwork, again to help make the system move a little faster. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the emphasis that has been put on the expansion and the provision of legal aid and the family legal aid caseload, we have concentrated in that area. In terms of other approaches that we could take, there hasn't been a lot of work done. I'm hoping that the Legal Services Board will now have an opportunity to consider alternate approaches in the future. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Final short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, I'm not suggesting a drive-through legal advice window, what I'm suggesting is the Minister willing to take up talks clearly with the Legal Services Board about possibly setting up a phone line that we could have some advice to help process their paperwork? Will he be very clear on his commitment on being able to make that approach possible, or at least open up that type of discussion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think one of the areas that we want to move into is exploring whether or not a process of arbitration could work better than that, that would involve lawyers. So I think that's the area that the Legal Services Board may be taking a look at next. In terms of the provision of quasi legal advice, no, that isn't something that the Legal Services Board has gotten into. It's outside their mandate and it's something that the Law Society does. They have a Law Line and they operate that and I think it is designed to provide the sort of counsel that the Member refers to. Thank you.