Thank you. We will call a short recess and continue on page 7-26.

---SHORT RECESS

I would like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on the Department of Justice. Minister Bell.

Madam Chair, I just want to provide some clarification. I had indicated earlier that SFA wouldn't be irrelevant for RCMP depot. The Education Minister has advised me that, in fact, it is an accredited institution. So if somebody interested in attending depot or was accepted at depot came forward to the department and presented a list of eligible expenses, that would be up for consideration and potentially for SFA. I think that was a response to a question that Mr. Ramsay had posed. I just wanted to make sure that I clarified that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister Bell. Information item, legal aid services, active positions, pages 7-26 and 7-27.

Thank you. Page 7-29, activity summary, courts, operations expenditure summary, $8.551 million.

Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will officially say I appreciate Cabinet for helping us move along in the system. Madam Chair, the Minister read into the record in his opening remarks about Supreme Court and the fact that they sat 113 days. As I understand it, we have three members on our bench for the Supreme Court and that's about 38 days each. I am trying to get a sense of how many days each year each justice sits. How many sitting days do justices sit in court? Talking about Supreme Court justices, who pays for the appointment of a particular cost associated with the Supreme Court? How do you know when you need four, if you only have three in the system right now? I find it unusual, of course it's a normal practice, I am sure, by federal standards, that the federal government appoints a Supreme Court judge to our court without any input from the territorial level. Maybe the Minister could enlighten me on some of those matters. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, Madam Chair. The federal government pays the salary for Supreme Court judges. So if you wanted to take the number of sitting days and divide it by the three Supreme Court justices, that would tell you sort of, in a round about way, what each of those judges has in terms of workload. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Hawkins.

Do we get charged back for any of the services that they provide, other than the usual costs associated with having a sheriff on duty? Specific to the actual Supreme Court justice, does the Government of Canada charge us back for fees to compensate the pay of Supreme Court justices? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, as I understand it, I indicated the federal government pays for the salary for the justice; we pay for the trial, the operations and maintenance and support staff related to carrying out that trial. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister Bell. Minister Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The only reason I am asking is because the Minister sort of singled it out in his opening comments. I am in no way thinking that justices should be on a treadmill of any sort, but I was just curious on why he pointed out that only 113 days were served outside of Yellowknife. He didn't mention Yellowknife at all. I was just curious who paid for them and he did answer that question twice. I was only curious on the second time around if we had to compensate their salaries in some area. The fee for justice in the sense of court times and whatnot. It's a cost that I would assume we pay anyway. I don't see any concern about that detail. I was only concerned at the time of who pays their actual salary; again because he pointed out that they sat 113 days in his opening remarks. Does he know how many days they sit in Yellowknife? Again, because it was in his opening statement, it drew my attention out of curiosity, how many days do territorial justices sit in total both in Yellowknife and outside of Yellowknife? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, in 2005, Supreme Court sat for a total of 247 days in Yellowknife; a total of 113 days outside of Yellowknife; total sitting days, 340 for Supreme. The question on Territorial Court is 305 in Yellowknife; 359 outside of Yellowknife. Sorry, just a correction, total Supreme Court days is 360. I missed that. It was 247, plus 113; 360. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Bell. Mr. Hawkins. Page 7-29, activity summary, courts, operations expenditure summary, $8.551 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The statistics regarding the increase in the number of sitting days of court, I believe it was triple the number of community

sitting days over last year and in Yellowknife, double the amount of court time in the past five years. Madam Chair, the first one especially, the number of community sitting days triple in one year is quite a change. What is the explanation, or what can the department tell us about what's going on? What's changing in this area? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Bell.

Madam Chair, generally the trend is rising crime rates; we no longer, more serious trials. I think Members are aware of that. I should caution and say there can be instances -- and I don't know if that was the case here -- where we can have one case that can take a significant amount of time and since we are dealing with only 113 days, it wouldn't take much to skew that data. I think generally the trend is more towards rising crime and more serious trials, longer trials. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Mr. Braden.