Mr. Speaker, obviously the Member and I agree. Access to justice is critical. We need to make sure that those who can't afford legal representation, when they are in legal need, have that access. We have had some concern.
The Members on the other side have raised questions continually about our caseloads and backlogs. I am happy to say that we are making some significant progress. We typically averaged well over 100 people on the waiting list. I think we have that down now, I understand, as of September 1st, south of 50, I believe, who are waiting to be assigned lawyers. We have a mixed system where we rely on both staff lawyers and the private Bar, but, Mr. Speaker, we aren't satisfied in this regard. We think we can do more.
It is a constant battle to recruit lawyers. We are looking at some things outside the box. I have had some discussions with my department recently about having a lawyer attend on the basis of a local service provider. I don't want to get into too much detail at this point, just to suggest that the idea is that a morning each week, a legal aid lawyer would attend at this facility and help people who are there get access to legal aid. I have some questions about whether or not everybody feels comfortable dealing with our current framework and mechanism for access to legal aid. I want to make sure that those questions are answered. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.