Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree with all those comments by the Member, and the solution will be driven by the community. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from the Yellowknife Centre.

Yeah, thank you. And it's ironic, I mean, our facilities numbers are going down, which is -- no one wants to pray for more crime which would mean the facilities would be busier. So I don't know if this is a symptom of things are getting better or worse in some ways. And maybe is there a reason why the trend is going in this way? The Yellowknife facility, if I remember correctly, was built for around 200 individuals. The Hay River facility could handle -- I can't remember the number. I'll say 40, maybe or so. The numbers isn't the issue that I'm raising, is the trend is the issue. And is there something we need to know or be aware of? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. And as the deputy minister stated earlier, there is a working group looking at the reason, examining the reasons behind the decline. Some of the obvious reasons are changes to the Criminal Code as well as case law handed down from the Supreme Court related to things like bail. And the majority of inmates has, I believe, historically been remanded, and when the Supreme Court and the Criminal Code says no more remanding of individuals except in expectational circumstances, that has a huge impact. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the only thing I would say left on this one is that, again, I take the job loss serious. I mean, sometimes government has to do things. I recognize that. I mean, I don't support the layoffs personally in the sense of, yeah, this is a good idea. You're not going to hear that from me. But what I would say is that I recognize the government has to do the government of business sometimes, and I would encourage the department and the Minister to use the fulsome opportunity of trying to find ways to bridge these into the other two facilities, be it Hay River or Yellowknife or find some ways. I do know that the Yellowknife facility has challenges, staffing, overtime, etcetera. There may be opportunities -- you folks know your numbers better than I do. So I know them anecdotically, but you know them accurately. And so I'll leave it that with saying that if -- if the Member -- if the Minister needs support to find ways, I'll certainly be supportive of finding ways to get the people to facilities that could use them. And if that specific line item needed to be a supp for transfer or whatnot, I mean, I would easily be supportive of that. Thank you.

Thank you. No further questions? I don't see none. I'll continue on.

Please turn to page 307, Justice, corrections, operations expenditures summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $36,757,000. Does the committee agree?

If you could say it louder so that we could hear.

Thank you, I'll read it out again. And if you could speak up so we have it recorded.

Justice, corrections, operations expenditures, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $36,757,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you.

Moving on to court services, beginning on page 310, information items on page 312. Are there any questions?

Seeing none, no further questions, please turn to page 311. Justice, court services, operations expenditures summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $15,765,000. Does the committee agree?

Thank you. Moving onto the legal aid services beginning on page 313 with the information items on page 315. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm looking at the line item for Office of the Children's Lawyer, which I spoke about yesterday in my Member's statement. So children and youth in the child welfare system are some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. And decisions that are made for them are supposed to be based on their best interests, on their views and preferences when that can be determined.

So, first, if we just establish what exactly is being lost here. We see that the budget is being reduced by $200,000. Can you explain what is being reduced and what will remain in the program with the remaining $225,000? What is that remaining amount for?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. What is being reduced is an administrative position essentially, the position that would assign files to panel lawyers when required to do so as well as perform other duties. What remains is a budget for, I believe, seven panel lawyers experienced in dealing with children's law and family law matters. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So to be clear, we're cutting the senior lawyer who runs the Office of the Children's Lawyer? Is that what you're referring to when you say it's simply an administrative position?

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. Yes, that is correct. That position has not had a case load and so it hasn't been representing children in court. Those duties are done by the panel lawyers. So the position over the last number of years has been working on updates to policy manuals, assigning the files to the different panel lawyers, working on migrating data into the legal aid information network, and similar tasks. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my understanding is that some of the important roles of that senior lawyer in the Office of the Children's Lawyer has been training and mentoring those other lawyers who are assigned to children's cases, which is a very specialized area, vetting those lawyers, monitoring them, responding to complaints about them, as well as undertaking research and advocacy around changes to legislation, such as the child and family services process, the CFS Act, as well as advocating about children's legal rights within HSS, to schools, families, even to judges and to other lawyers. Can the Minister explain who will be taking on those responsibilities if the senior lawyer position within the Office of the Children's Lawyer is reduced? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. And those are all things that could be done by someone in that role. The extent to which they're done, I'm not sure. But the duties will be taken on by the executive director of the Legal Aid Commission with support from the other staff. And the Commission, from what I understand, feels confident that those duties can be absorbed and done without any disruption in service. Thank you.