Agreed. Moving on to page 9-23, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $11.316 million.

Page 9-24, information item, court services, active positions.

Agreed. Moving on to page 9-27, activity summary, community justice and corrections, operations expenditure summary, $38.683 million.

Moving on to page 9-28, activity summary, community justice and corrections, grants and contributions, contributions, $2.377 million.

Moving on to page 9-29, information item, community justice and corrections, active positions.

Moving on to page 9-31, activity summary, services to public, operations expenditure summary. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to just state here in terms of the family law initiatives, which we heard about this morning at our briefing, I think the department is absolutely on the right track and the success, obviously, the initial evaluations that they’ve done so far in a number of their programs indicates that the programs are working very well and they’re a success. So I’d like to commend the department for the work that they’ve done there, and I missed the page, but the domestic violence court option is also another area which I think is going to prove to be quite successful.

I wanted to ask about the Family Violence Action Plan, I think we’re on phase 3 now and I wondered where the department is at with this particular action plan. Thank you.

Deputy Minister Watters.

Thanks for the information. I look forward to when that plan is actually developed and in place. I think it will be a good step forward and I think we then have to look at other aspects of abusers. I know it’s been mentioned we have a program for men who abuse, but there also are women who abuse and I think it is something that we probably have to look at in the future.

I wondered if the department could confirm or dispel a rumour that I heard a little while ago. I know the coroner’s office falls under this particular section and I heard a rumour that the coroner’s office is going to be transformed into a medical examiner office, that we’re going to go from a coroner system to a medical examiner system. Could I get confirmation or denial of that? Thank you.

Minister of Justice.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. It would be a rumour, but it’s not happening. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister. I’m really glad to hear that, because I really don’t think for a jurisdiction our size that we could afford and/or we could manage a medical examiner system. So thank you very much.

Next I have Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions for the Minister to see if he could maybe provide me some advice in this area. In the maintenance enforcement we have the situation of their maintenance enforcement change. So like individuals that used to pay maintenance enforcement and then end up with the children, but the requirement is still there for them to continue to make maintenance enforcement payments until they go back to court or file something with the courts to indicate that they now have custody of the children. I’m wondering if there’s another way that they can just work through the maintenance enforcement office instead of going back to court, because these people end up falling so far behind that their money is being garnisheed and they can’t afford a lawyer so they get caught in a catch-22 essentially. So they’re getting their money taken away, they’re keeping the kids at the same time, they can’t afford to go back to court. So can the Minister offer some solution for that? Thank you.

Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is an area that we have explored for quite some time now, on how we can get around the system, because there has been a few cases where they want to be reassessed and the only way to do that is through the court venue and, of course, it costs money to go through the process. So through our research in different areas, we are still doing some additional research, but I’m hoping that at the end of March we should have a program in place that we’re hoping deals with the child support payment recalculation services. This is an area that will very much, I guess, cover off or offset what the Member is referring to. We are exploring that option and we will be before the standing committee once the program is ready to roll.

Page 9-31, Justice, activity summary, services to public, operations expenditure summary, $4.723 million.