Mr. Chairman, that increase was for the legal division in support of devolution. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. So I note two pages in, I think, there is an increase in five positions. Are all five of those positions related to devolution or not? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, there are 10 new positions in total. Thank you.

Okay, so I am presuming all 10 of those positions are not in this section because we get five more in active positions in two pages later on. Are some of those in another section? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, it is just a net effect, that number. Thank you.

Great, thanks for that. So the 10 positions that we are adding, could I just get a rough idea of what types of positions they are, are they all lawyers or what functions do they have? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that, we will go to Ms. Schofield.

Thank you, Ms. Schofield. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s all.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Moving on with questions on 9-13, I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions here. The first one is coming out of the Government Operations report where committee had made a recommendation for stiffer penalties for bootleggers and drug dealers, and creating stiffer penalties such as seizure of vehicles and other materials related to any type of cases. I didn’t know whether to ask the question to this department, so I figured under this department would be the appropriate place. I just wanted to ask the Minister if there was any work that was done towards that or if there is any action going to be taken to these recommendations on creating these stiffer penalties to look at preventing or encouraging those that are doing these kind of activities to basically stop. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of Finance is taking the lead on that initiative and we certainly are supporting them in that effort. Thank you.

I just have one other question in this area. Speaking with other professionals and looking at other acts and things that we are trying to amend or change within this government, I had it come to my attention that the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, there are papers and reports that are done by intern students working in that area, for however long a period of time that they are, that they do come with good recommendations, as well, and I am not sure if committee or Members have ever seen those intern reports.

I just want to ask the Minister, are those reports that are done by interns that work for the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, available to the public, or are they available to Members of this House to review and look at whether or not we could take those recommendations and put them into action? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, that is the first that I have heard of those types of reports. We can have the department go back and ask court services if they are familiar with those types of reports and where they go and how they could be utilized if there are some good recommendations in there. It might be an avenue worth exploring. Thank you.

Just for more clarity, I know that when the interns come – I think one – and they are put into working with the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, one of their projects that they take is that they develop a paper or something as such. I was actually speaking to one of them who was in the position and they mentioned that they came across all these papers, so they are definitely there, reports and papers by interns that do have recommendations, so I do enjoy reading reports. I am not sure if I enjoy reading them, but that is part of my job that I do take that initiative to read reports and look at the recommendations, so those would be definitely some that I would like to review. If that information is available to Regular Members it would be greatly appreciated if we could find that out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chairman, we will find out for the Member and the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Moving on to questions on 9-13, I have Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask a little about the 15 percent increase I see here in compensation and benefits. I know the Minister mentioned that devolution is playing or having or creating a demand, for sure. I’m wondering if that is what this increase is. Yes, we’ll start with that. I believe there are five positions, which probably accounts for the 15 percent increase, but if we could hear a little bit about it and

how that will be ongoing as to opposed to a one-time thing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We will go to Ms. Haener for that.

So is that all five of these positions?