Thank you. If the offer is on the detail of how long they’ve been vacant and the money attributed to that specific position, that will be all I require.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Ramsay.

No, we made a commitment to the Member and we will get that information.

Thank you. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. How many court workers do we have in this division?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s 10 in total.

I know we went through a review not so long ago and emphasized the importance of the court workers and their multilingual status, so I think they do play an important role.

Are there issues about filling these positions generally or is this perhaps there’s just a higher turnover in court workers?

Yes, at times, there are some difficulties in staffing those positions.

I don’t have any other questions, I am sure the Minister is on top of what the issues are and will be trying to address them, and if there is anything committee should be aware of, then he will let us know and we can help out too. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Page 9-23 Justice, activity summary, legal aid services, operations expenditure summary, $6.224 million. Agreed?

Thank you. Moving on to 9-24, Justice, information item, legal aid services, active positions. Agreed?

Agreed. Thank you. Now on Page 9-27, Justice, activity summary, court services, operations expenditure summary, $12.415 million. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On this page here, I do have a motion to read out.

Please read your motion, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the government provide funding and resources in the fiscal year 2014-2015, to develop and update materials related to the translation of legal

terminology; and further, that the Department of Justice work with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to provide specialized training in legal terminology to enhance interpretation services in the courts for all Aboriginal residents. Mahsi, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The motion speaks to providing some funding and resources in 2014-15 to update the materials related to the legal terminology in our court system and having some materials that will be used for our interpreters in our communities.

When we go into our small Aboriginal communities, usually you look for who has the services for providing there, some of them provide these services without the legal terminology training, the concept of what is happening within the court system. It is all done in the English language. More so than is done in the legalities of the court system, so interpreting that into an Aboriginal language, and back and forth for a person who is not very knowledgeable in the English language what has been said, so the language has to be there up front as a constitutional right for any person going through the court system.

This motion talks about Justice working with Education, Culture and Employment to provide some of the specialized training in the legal terminology so that the people have the best possible opportunity and that their needs are being met, and response from the justice system, as the Minister has duly noted in his opening statement.

I would urge the Members here to look at this and give support to Justice to look at this legalized terminology training for our workers. Too many times we hear, in our small communities, where they take somebody off the community street or put them into the justice system and interpret for us. Those days are long gone and we need to put the focus on our interpreters.

I have talked to some of our interpreters in our Sahtu communities and they are saying we need to have some training in the legality and terminology of our court system. We need to have this training done so people who are more comfortable in the language, going through the court system, could have that opportunity other than to provide it only in English or very minimal and not understanding the legalities of the court system. So, this motion is brought forward to support the government to move in this direction to see if we can get some results. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.

Recorded vote, please, Madam Chair.