Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be voting in favour of this motion. As a new Member, it’s something that I’m learning about, the ombudsman and the potential that it has. Several different jurisdictions have different responsibilities, whether it’s the rental office, whether it’s housing issues, hospital issues, police abuse, police issues, so I believe that there’s a group of people in the Northwest Territories that are falling through the cracks in the system that don’t have an appeal system. Ultimately we have one option to go through the courts, and those court costs and court delays are often very expensive and very monotonous. I think the ombudsman would give them a place to put their grievance, get a quick answer at least in the direction of whether it is acceptable to move forward.
Some of the information that I have received is not anywhere near the $9 million cost. It is more like a $600,000 to $650,000 cost. It all depends on what jurisdiction you are looking at, I do believe, and how it’s incorporated and what is incorporated with it.
I think there is also a lot of merit in using this type of ombudsman or that type of office to do also minor reviews of the government and government programs, what is going on and what can be looked from a third party, from a distance, that says this is an area where we think there’s a flaw in this program. There is a flaw in this part of the government. There is a great deal of that type of concern in the general public right now. I will be supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.