Thank you. Deputy minister Doolittle.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I -- you know, I know we have a large legislative backlog and a lot of work to kind of cram in these last 18 months. The Minister, as the Government House Leader, knows that well. But Justice is the best department to get legislation done so maybe they could tack on one more. I think there's some changes needed there.

I had one more question which is that I know there's an annual report from the coroner and the department, you know, receives those recommendations but I think there's kind of a step missing here, is that following an inquiry, numerous recommendations are made and they then get kind of given to departments and no formal response is given. There kind of seems to be a, you know, not a formal follow-up mechanism. I think that probably could be a legislative fix, you know, requiring when a department is -- has recommendations following an inquiry that they at least provide a formal response. You know, that would be well beyond just Justice but perhaps, you know, absent legislative fix, can the Minister speak to any work being done to make sure that the great work that comes out of inquiries gets responded to at the very least. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. And those recommendations are -- things that appear in those reports are not always for the Department of Justice. They might not even be for government. I don't know if the deputy minister would like to speak to this, or. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Deputy minister Doolittle.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I'm not asking the Department of Justice to be the enforcer of those recommendations or even tell a department that they have to follow them. I know the Minister is well aware of how some of the statutory officers go where there's a required timeline to respond, and I think that's something that the act could require, is that, you know, if a department receives one they at least say accept, reject, or deny. That's how we -- we have a similar relationship with our auditor general and, well, a number of kind of arm's lengths. So I guess I'll just ask if that's something the Minister could, you know, possibly look into? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. I mean, it's a little beyond the scope of what we're discussing here today, with the budget of services to public, but I'm happy to have conversations with the Member. And as he stated as well, we have a large legislative agenda and we don't have that much time left in this government. So we're pretty tight for -- tight for staff. We have a number of lawyers who've decided to run for office and now they're sitting in this room here instead of drafting for us. So that's part of the issue. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, in regards to the public trustee line, I notice that there's a little bit of an increase. I'm wondering if this is due to a greater number of estates that the public trustee is managing and if that number is expected to continue to increase therefore as our population ages? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. Oh, so this is an increase due to amortization and increases in the collective bargaining agreement. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, and I need to do better to slow down so my apologies again to the interpreters.

My next question is in regards to the coroner service. The coroner service also saw an increase, and I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to what that increase was for? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. There was an increase to collective -- or the salaries because of the collective agreement, as well there is a position that is now on the books, an administrative coordinator. It was funded internally before I believe. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the coroner puts out an annual report every year and within those annual reports, a lot of times we do end up seeing recommendations to different government departments. I'm wondering what support the Department of Justice provides to the coroner's office to either solicit responses from different departments for those recommendations or to provide some teeth to those recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Justice.

Thank you. I think I've talked myself -- I have nothing left to say about the coroner's reports so perhaps -- and their recommendations. Perhaps the Minister -- or the deputy minister has some more comments. Thank you.