I understood, though, that there was an internal restatement within the department where a number of costs that were associated with a library have now been apportioned to the court registries. Can the Minister or his staff confirm that? I think the figure was about $220,000. Can the Minister or his staff confirm that, please?

Mr. Chair, I'm certainly not aware of that. I do know that the costs of the library have been exceeding the budget costs by approximately that same amount, but I'm not aware of anything to do with the registries tying into the library.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out here is the costs that have been quoted by the Minister in the House yesterday, $467,000. We've got a part of a staff person or staff PY. I understood that that would save us about $50,000, that the $417,000, that's really just publications, or does it actually include the costs that we would pay to rent that space within the building?

Mr. Chair, the $50,000 was going to be the money we would save immediately or this year, but perhaps Ms. Schofield can assist. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Schofield.

Thank you, Ms. Schofield. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thanks Mr. Chair. That's helpful information to have. Anything above $50,000 that we're going to save with the staff person is being spent on publications? I'm trying to find out, I want to get a specific breakdown of this $467,000, and I don't seem to be getting it from the department?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Perhaps Ms. Schofield can assist.

That's helpful in understanding this. Is any portion of the $467,000 that the Minister has stated in this House, is any of that related to cost of this space rental?

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Your time has expired, but I will allow Ms. Schofield to answer.

Mr. Thompson.

Thank you. I'll just build on Mr. O'Reilly's questions here so I can better understand what's being offered here. So if I understand correctly, we have $100,000 for salary, then we have $367,000 which includes materials and supplies and volumes of books. Is this correct?

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.

Yes, Mr. Chair. That is correct. Thank you.

Okay, I'm just a little bit confused on why we would have this over expenditure of $244,000 every year. Is this related to just the subscriptions?

Yes, Mr. Chair, it is mostly related to the subscriptions, which are incredibly expensive, and probably have gone up in price over the years. In fact, I'm sure they've gone up in price over the years.

I thank the Minister for that answer. Just so I understand properly--somebody said something. Now I have to catch it. Subscriptions are involved. Is it electronic or hard copy?

My understanding, Mr. Chair, is the vast majority of the cost is hard copies. What you find with the subscriptions is that loose-leaf service is most of them, so they have to be put in the books, but they come every quarter depending on changes in the law, and they are, I know from personal experience, incredibly expensive.

If we have these subscriptions, what--are you not going to be using them anymore or is it not going to be out there? How is this going to be handled if we do not get these hard copies?

Mr. Chair, a lot of this information can be obtained online, or alternatively, often these subscriptions relate to fairly obscure areas of law, and perhaps the practitioners in those areas can pay for their own books as lawyers who are outside of Yellowknife must.

Do you have to pay for these online subscriptions?