I agree with the Minister. Talking to the number of lawyers that I have, we don’t have enough lawyers even to serve the needs of the residents who don’t use legal aid in the Northwest Territories. That could open up another set of questions as to do we need to rethink where you’re indicating that there’s going to be new update to the act. That’s just framework. We still need bodies. Are we going to have to look at opening up the doors to changing drastically enough so that we can actually have more government payrolled lawyers? I’ll start with that.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Schofield.

It does sound like there is potentially an impetus for us to look at wages for our… I know it’s about classifications and I don’t want to get into the legalese in terms of the criteria for pay. My question was purely are we in the ballpark to attract these people.

My next question will have to deal more with the aspect of poverty law and poverty law services. Poverty law services is helping the needs of the elderly to do wills and those types of things. Is that eating up a lot of our legal aid time? Should we be looking at a different vehicle to deal with poverty law?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We have a full-time lawyer, a poverty lawyer, what is referred to as a poverty lawyer within our facility. This isn’t one of our legal aid lawyers. This was a different position. They are doing a significant amount of work and doing a lot of important work for residents all over the Northwest Territories. Some pretty basic things to some more complicated things. Every ounce of feedback that we get back from this position that this person is in, is that they are adding significant value to people who can’t afford these types of services.

Thanks to the Minister for the response. My last question really is about benchmarks and what does the Minister and the department have as a benchmark to really evaluate the efficiencies of legal aid accessibility. Are they using caseload backlog? Are they using time of waiting for cases? What is the criteria that the department is using to justify so that when we’re going to the next budget, we don’t need to bring that up again? We know what the criteria are from our side of the House.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Watters.

Thank you, Ms. Watters. Next on my list is Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is also on the Legal Services Act aspect here. Given the availability of lawyers relative to workload, the high degree of need for legal aid, and I include both court workers and lawyers here, and that legal aid is typically not based in small and remote communities, and obviously there’s the cost factor. What are we expecting and how would a new Legal Aid Act help out with those issues?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Ms. Watters.

I realize that it’s a tough question and we’ll have to wait and see to some degree. Primarily this is administrative stuff. The role of the court workers, obviously, is regarded by some to be quite important. Especially in our communities. Does the Minister see that as continuing to be an important part or will he play an enhanced role under new direction?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the court workers are an incredibly important role. I definitely want to see them continue. We will be looking for ways to utilize them more effectively and enhance their role.

There is a word to explore someday. Just with respect to my colleagues bringing up the issue of translation and whatnot, I know that in the past, court workers have played an important role there when they happen to have that talent. Is there an attempt to hire court workers that have more than one language to help deal with that issue, which I believe is a real one I’m sure the Minister would agree.

We wouldn’t want to discriminate anybody because they didn’t have a language, but it is certainly an asset if they have it. If they do have it, it’s something that we can provide bilingual bonuses for. If we can find people who can do the work and have the capacity that speak the language, obviously that’s a real asset.

I guess on that, where do they come from? Do we provide training? Does Aurora College provide training to a court worker? What are the qualifications that they require?

Quite honestly, the vast majority of the knowledge, skills, and ability these people have is on-the-job training. Whether they started in a law firm or whether they started working in a community where they had an opportunity to deal with legal issues, we take people who have the capacity and desire and we train them on the job, to be quite honest.

From that I conclude that obviously there is a high potential for hiring people with more than one language, if that was the interest of the department. I see that as an opportunity and I’m sure the Minister is aware of that.

My last question is just in follow up to my colleague Mr. Dolynny. What is our benchmark in terms of waiting period? Is there a number of months? Do we aim for three months or two months or four months? It sounds like there might be a national standard for that. Some details there would be good.

Before I go to Kim Schofield here, just to the Member’s last question, many of the individuals providing the court worker services can speak multiple languages. That is obviously something that is important to us. It’s just that we would never discriminate anybody if they couldn’t. I’d go to Ms. Schofield for specifics on the last question.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Schofield.