Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I would like to thank those Members for their words of support for this motion. I would like to talk a bit about a couple of things.
Cost has been mentioned in a number of different contexts. Yukon spends $600,000 or $700,000 a year for their ombudsman office. I would suggest that we are hardly anywhere near the size of Quebec, so I can’t see us spending $13 million on an ombudsman office. I expect we would spend approximately the same amount of money as the Yukon. I also expect we would see some savings in our court system and justice system as a result, because there would be fewer people having to go to court. At least those of our residents who have that conviction and will to take it as far as that goes.
There are many options possible for an ombudsman office. The fact that my colleague suggests that it needs to be a more specific proposal at this time, to me, is putting the cart before the horse. I believe that we need to approve the idea and then need to do investigation. The Minister of Justice has said a number of times, as we deliberate the budget, that we need to look into things, we need to get the facts, we need to determine what’s possible. That’s what this motion recommends. It recommends looking into and developing legislation for an ombudsman office. We could have a full-time ombudsman. We could have a half-time ombudsman. We could combine it with another statutory officer who already exists. There are gaps in the services to our residents which are not currently being addressed by the statutory officers that we have.
I believe that passing this motion shows that we recognize the need for certain services to our residents and I think it would show the will that the creation of an office should get started.
I would like to say that in terms of powers of an ombudsman, one of my colleagues suggested that we shouldn’t have somebody who is telling the government what to do. If the matter goes to court and the court decides against the government, the court tells the government what to do. In my mind, it’s far more efficient to have an ombudsman directing the government to do that than it is to have the court doing that.
To the suggestion that this legislation belongs with the Board of Management, the Board of Management does not develop legislation. Legislation is developed by the government, generally by the Department of Justice. This is asking for this House to determine that this service is required, and then asking the government to develop legislation, perhaps with consultation of all Members, perhaps with consultation just within the
Executive. It’s suggesting an independent body but the legislation has to come from the Executive.
Lastly, there’s an issue that Members will not be able to advocate on behalf of their constituents because a situation might be before the ombudsman. That would be a specific situation. Somebody has made a ruling against me, my Member does not have to speak against that ruling. They can speak to the issue but they don’t have to speak to the particular situation. That happens all the time. We can bring up an issue and we talk to the issue or we talk to the policy or the process. We don’t have to mention specific things. I don’t think the advocacy of an MLA is going to be diminished in the least. I think it’s going to be a great assistance to MLAs’ offices and it will provide better justice for our constituents.
I appreciate the position of those Members who feel that they can’t support this motion. It is mostly regrettable to me that they don’t feel that the support is needed to provide service for their constituents. I ask for a recorded vote and I encourage all Members to vote in support.