My point — which was made at the start of this, which I referenced — stands very clearly. We're spending a lot of money to talk about the most expensive people on our payroll by hiring expensive consultants to challenge and negotiate with more expensive consultants. I wouldn't doubt that these expensive consultants’ time is worth the money that they billed for, but it’s a process that seems to cost us money.
When we talk about times like these, where we have to find ways to be creative and succinct in how we can find ways to save money, a three-page piece of legislation could clear this up. I doubt that would cost this Assembly $133,000. If anything, it would provide certainty to the judges and their system, whereby they would get an appropriate
increase that is attached to a normal process, again outside of the areas I talked about.
I reaffirm what the Premier — I should say the FMB Minister at this time; it’s the same guy, which is confusing some days — I reaffirm what he said, which is, yes, it is a third arm; it’s independent; and it’s meant to be independent and not tied to what we do. That being said, we could streamline and simplify the process and give it the respect it’s due, rather than sending negotiators off every four years at $133,000.
Although I don't have the tally from the one they did four years ago, the way prices continue to go, I can guarantee that the one that's due four years from now will be more than $133,000. And we'll be looking back and saying, “Gee, three or four pieces of paper would have cost us very little, compared to this process.”
I would ask the Minister: would he commit to evaluating this situation to see if they could create some type of discussion paper to review the situation and see if there’s a way we could do this in a simpler process? Again, to reaffirm certainly for the justice system that they will be paid appropriately, but we can get it on track where it does it by itself.