Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Dolynny, for bringing this motion to the floor for discussion. It speaks to a modernization and improvement of the justice that we have specific to the communities that I represent. This modernization bill here is 33 years old. The new way of thinking is to look at a motion that Mr. Dolynny has brought to the floor here. Either the commission works with the Minister and the commission works with the executive director who’s a lawyer or a person with significant management and financial experience. I think that’s the way to go.
I think that the Department of Justice, even through their justification, hasn’t swayed my heart to say yes, this is the way to go. That, for me, is narrow thinking. That, to me, is you’re locking in a system that we are so desperately trying to get out of, which is a colonial system that’s saying only certain people with certain qualifications. That, for me, shuts out a lot of applicants from my region who may have exceptional executive director skills and
organization, and so the pool of applicants becomes very elite. There is a very, very small pool of people to choose from if we leave it to lawyers only. There are only a small number of people who would be able to qualify, and that discriminates against other people who may have exceptional skills as an executive director. That is almost saying that to the hospitals or the health boards, that if you have a doctor’s degree that you could also apply for an executive director with the doctor because you have medical skills and the business is of a medical nature and the doctors give advice to other doctors or nurses.
We’re going backwards on this bill here, on this specific clause, and for me, that is not good for our government. It’s one step, two steps forward and two or three steps backwards. We are leaving out, potentially, some very exceptional people who have really good managerial skills.
Madam Chair, not all lawyers make good managers. That’s something we need to look at. I believe that more flexibility needs to be adapted to the changing future circumstances of the law in the Northwest Territories, especially in our small communities. How many lawyers know what it’s like to manage justice in our communities? I just spoke to it earlier at the opening comments to the Minister of the legal aid that comes into our communities and they have a huge number of clients. Their work is incredible. But they spend five or 10 minutes with the client and then they go to the court. That is not justice. We need to have a really good system.
I ask the question to the Justice: Why are we limiting ourselves now? The job may require a lawyer but, potentially, the duties and focus of the job could change in the future. Mr. Dolynny said in 10 years from now we’re going to look at this bill again. That is incredible. That is outrageous. Why are we locking ourselves into the shackles of having the executive director be a lawyer? That doesn’t go good with me. Something’s not right. We’re supposed to modernize this here. As I said before, we are stepping back into a very narrow, fearful way of doing business with justice.
There are only a limited number of lawyers in the Northwest Territories. Why not let those lawyers actually practice law and help us, and not run organizations? Let them do what they’re trained to do. I think that’s the way to go. With this motion, it leaves an opening to the government. You never know. Maybe at the end of the day there might be a lawyer that has exceptional managerial skills and may want to be the executive director; maybe not. But right now this department here is shutting the door on future potential executive directors that may want to work in this field, who have a passion to help people, who have a passion to work with people in the communities. We are not giving them a chance. The Department of Justice should put up
a sign outside their door: You need not apply if you aren’t a practicing lawyer, a law degree. Save us some time.
This motion here looks at modernization. It is a forward-thinking motion. It is a motion that supports the Northwest Territories. I’m very confused and very perplexed as to why the Department of Justice would corner itself with this executive director only to have to be a lawyer to work in that department. For me, we are taking a step back in this bill here with this type of legislation going forward. We are going to make a law. That is the scary part about it. I really don’t understand the department’s rationale. They have given us some information. It still hasn’t clicked inside me to say yes, this is the way we should be going. If we are going to do that, we’re sending a strong message right across the Northwest Territories. Then what’s next? Health? Education? All the different other jobs that are key to running a good functional government organization.
Legal Aid is an organization that helps a lot of people in our small communities and to only have it open only for lawyers is not right. Justice isn’t done here in this bill. Certainly justice has been denied to a lot of people. I’m going to support this motion 110 per cent. Thank you.