Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the Minister know whether the executive director of legal aid has any experience in family or children's law to be able to take on those responsibilities?

Thank you. Go the Minister.

Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I just want to be clear, you know, based on some of the answers the Minister gave yesterday to oral questions, you know, there's a lot of joking about how we have so many lawyers in this territory, surely we have plenty of them already. But this is a very specialized area of law and to be clear, you know, government lawyers, real estate lawyers, corporate lawyers, criminal lawyers, cannot take on this work. And most of the lawyers working within the GNWT are not actually qualified to work with children. And in fact, many may not want to practice in that area because it is a very challenging and complex area of law. And my understanding, too, is that legal aid has four family lawyers on staff and often are quite busy and overwhelmed. There's often quite high turnover in those positions. And they often represent parents in child welfare cases so there might actually be conflicts of interest.

Is the Minister concerned about any possible conflicts of interest that would arise if we have legal aid staff that are managing the Office of the Children's Lawyer?

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

Thank you. No. And I would say that the Member stated this is a very specialized area of law, it's essentially family law. You can have some additional training, but I wouldn't characterize it as very specialized. And the position does not have to work with children. There have been no cases held by the children's lawyer for quite some time and so there was no working with children. We have -- there is a number of panel lawyers, as I have mentioned, and they have experience in this. Some of them are actually criminal lawyers or have experience in other types of law so, you know, while lawyers do have specialty, they do also have the ability to work in a number of different areas. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I mean, I would -- I would respectfully disagree with the Minister and certainly would strongly advocate that this position be filled again and, you know, that the current person in the position is retiring but I think it is very important that that position is filled again with someone who does have expertise and experience in family law and specifically children's law. I mean, it's not very much money in the grand scheme of things, and that person has really played a linchpin role in holding this office together, including mentoring and training the lawyers that are on that panel of roster lawyers. And, you know, the Minister mentioned there are seven lawyers on this panel or roster. Three are based in Yellowknife. One is based in Hay River. And the others are -- actually operate in both NWT and BC or Alberta. All are doing this on top of other legal responsibilities. They're not doing this a hundred percent of the time. And, really, to have someone who is, like, holding the system together and being the core advocate and the person who can both advocate within our system but also be that person who can mentor and train and field complaints, I think has been quite essential. And so I think it is quite shortsighted and a mistake to let this position go. So I'll leave it there for now, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. Next on my list I got here is Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just would like to understand why legal aid clinics is substantially higher in this budget than the Legal Aid Commission itself. Thank you.

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

I'd like to direct that to Mr. Bancroft. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the director.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.

So in 20 -- the actuals from 2022-2023, the Commission had $3.9 million, and the clinics at 2.7, and now that suddenly inverted, now you see the kind of the opposite proportion, you see the clinics at $3.5 million and the Commission at $2.8 million. So I guess what does that change represent? Is it just a re-profiling of resources or are we moving more -- like, more to the panel itself rather than in-house staff? I can provide more detail if that's still unclear. But that's the change I'm trying to understand. Thank you.

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

I will hand it to the director. Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the director.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So would it be accurate to say that we are -- there's a higher expenditure on private lawyers than on staff lawyers in this budget? Thank you.

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