I will call committee back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 30-19(2), Main Estimates 2020-2021, and will be resuming with the Department of Justice. The Minister of Justice has previously given opening remarks. Does the Minister wish to bring witnesses into the House?

Yes, Madam Chair, I do.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses?

Madam Chair, on my right is Charlene Doolittle, deputy minister of Justice, and on my left is Mandi Bolstad, director of Finance.

All right, committee. We have deferred the departmental summary, and we will resume review of the estimates by activity summary. We will begin where we left off, starting on page 281 with information items up to 284, Justice, services to government, operations expenditure summary. I think we went through all the questions the last time, so we just need to call the page for this one, and then we can move on to the services to the public. Does committee agree?

Justice, services to government, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $12,961,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will now turn to page 285, services to the public, with information items up to 287. Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Right now, if I want to look up corporate registries document, it would cost me $4. Can the Minister tell me how much in revenue the corporate registries' online system makes us each year?

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry, if I could just clarify, it's the total revenue per year. Is that correct?

Yes.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't have the breakdown here, but I suspect Ms. Bolstad likely does.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Bolstad.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no issues, obviously, with land titles fees. Obviously, that is a fee, and I hope that office continues to charge them. My issue is specifically corporate registries, and very specifically the corporate registries' online system. I'll get to the point. It costs $4 to look up any corporate entity in the Northwest Territories. Most jurisdictions have waived this fee as an effort to transparency to see corporate records. These are public documents. It's a principle of good open data and open government to not put things behind a pay wall. Would a number of under $100,000 make sense for the amount of money we are actually charging to keep our corporate records behind a pay wall? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

While again, Madam Chair, we don't have the specific breakdown, I will certainly get it. I think really what I am being asked is whether or not we are going to look at whether we need to charge the $4 fee. That is not something that I have had a chance to speak to the department about, but I can certainly commit to having a proper conversation with the department and getting back to the Member or to this House about that. Thanks.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is exactly what I was looking at. I just think it would be one of these helpful transparency things if corporations' records were not behind a pay wall and I could go in and I could search any corporate entity and track their legal history, as I can do with most jurisdictions. Similarly with the land titles office, at one point, we were going to close down the land titles office during this COVID-19, essentially not allowing anyone to transfer real property. Can the Minister commit to bringing land titles online so that they can conduct their business even during a pandemic? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just looking. My recollection is actually that those efforts have been made recently. Now, I am not sure what the status of it is. This is the challenge of COVID-19, not being able to have my little whispers in my ear, but certainly in my past life I know there was access to a lot of that information online. I am not sure if there is something specific that the Member wants to ask about what is not online.