If we go online, will we be able to provide the same service to the lawyers and the public that is required if the subscriptions are not being used?

Mr. Chair, clearly, if this reduction proceeds, there will not be the same availability of material at the central library in Yellowknife. However, we do feel in view of the very, very reduced usage that that is not that big a loss, if I can put it that way, because most lawyers can simply find this information online, whether it's through a paid organization such as Westlaw, or CanLII where it's provided free of charge.

We have found in view of the usage, which I've referred to several times, that this is just too great an expense to justify, continuing with the library. Thank you.

What will happen to all these resources if this library is being closed?

Mr. Chair, I imagine we will do the same as we did when we reduced the size of the library. Some of the more valuable editions might come to archives or actually to our library here. There are some interesting aspects of the collection. I don't think we're going to be able to sell many of the other assets, and I think last time, they were simply given away to members of the local bar or whoever is interested, so that is the likely way we're going to dispose of these assets.

Can the Minister tell us if other regions or other provincial, territorial jurisdictions are getting rid of their libraries as well?

Mr. Chair, I do know that large law firms are certainly getting rid of their collections. When I started in this business many years ago as a lowly articling student in Toronto, one of the assets of every firm was seen to be their library. They don't have libraries anymore simply because they're not needed.

I don't know the exact expenditures in other provincial jurisdictions, but I imagine they are likely for the same reasons reducing their expenditures in this area. They would be in the same position in that they have asked majority of users now would be online, and it's very hard to justify the incredible expense of a library.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I am not talking about large law firms. I am talking about provincial and territorial governments. My understanding is that if this does occur in our territory we will be the only one in Canada without a law library. Is that correct, Mr. Chair? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.

Mr. Chair, I know that the judiciary will still have their library and I believe the Department of Justice does have a somewhat smaller library, legal division does. Some of the books -- I had the opportunity of looking at the main library here in town does have some books on law, so we will not have one central source of legal materials in the same way, but I think there will still be some access to those types of materials, either through the regular library archives, our library here, or the internal law libraries of the GNWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for his answer. I'm just looking at some information here. Nunavut, their government library is 100 per cent funded. Yukon is 70 per cent. So it really confuses me why our two sister territories think it is important to have this law library. And I guess my other concern is the judicial library is not open to the public. So how are we going to have people given the opportunity to get information properly if it's all over the place? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.

Individuals, Mr. Chair, will still have the option of doing their own research online, as I mentioned yesterday when asked about this issue. Only about one per cent of those using the current library are members of the general public, that is to say not lawyers or judges. So it doesn't seem that the public is using this facility very much. I can't really speak to what's going on in other jurisdictions, but we simply do not believe that the huge cost that is incurred is worthwhile anymore. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point in time, I am going to respectfully disagree with the Minister. I will end my questioning at this point in time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. I have Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have questions about the law library. I note that my colleagues commented on the fact that we'll be the only jurisdiction in Canada without this resource. We're also the only jurisdiction in Canada without a standalone courthouse that we own ourselves. These are both financial issues. The library being a recent one, but the courthouse being a longstanding one. I'm just wondering how does the Minister feel about that, about being Minister of Justice without a courthouse, and now without a law library, and a standalone in Canada. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Mr. Chair, the issue of a standalone courthouse in Yellowknife has been a long-standing issue. I believe this was looked at at some point in the not-too-distant past. The cost of establishing a new standalone courthouse was found to be excessive, so there's no plans in the immediate future to develop a new courthouse. Certainly, the judiciary and law profession probably would prefer a modern, standalone, separate courthouse. Should we go down that route, the cost would be very, very high and would take away from other capital projects that might be more worthy to a larger group of the population. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that it is a very costly project that doesn't have the same benefits of, say, a hospital or a road so being fiscally prudent on capital certainly. We're standing alone, I think, for the wrong reasons in some areas. I know the department sent a letter to the law society informing them of the change. Were other governments consulted in their library usage statistics because I wonder if we are alone in this decline? My sense would be that other jurisdictions, if the Minister is correct that major law firms are shutting their legal libraries down, perhaps it is true that other government-funded libraries have low usage, but are maintained for completely different reasons and that's a service to the public. Were other governments consulted on their law libraries? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister.

Mr. Chair, I don’t believe we consulted with other governments certainly respecting their libraries. We simply looked at our own cost structure here where there were so few people using it in view of the cost that it simply did not seem to be worthwhile. We only have a certain amount of resources for outreach, and as I mentioned earlier, we are increasing the outreach capabilities of the Legal Services Commission, and it simply comes down to a matter of cost balance against effect. Is the result good enough to justify this $467,000 cost? For the very few members of the public who actually use a library, we don’t think so. We also are of a view that the particularly valuable aspects of the collection will not be lost but would either go to archives, perhaps to this library here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.