R.J. Simpson

Thank you. And I believe this would fall under the governance and service integration section, but I'm happy to speak to it here. We are presenting to standing committee on this in the coming weeks, I believe -- yes, next week. And so we should have some more information for committee there, but perhaps I can hand it to the deputy minister to expand on this. Thank you.

Thank you. If the Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations would bring that forward, that would be something that would be considered. As it is, this is very much arm's length and, you know, as Minister, I don't interfere in their operations. But that said, we're always happy to have the conversations if they're raised. Thank you.

Thank you. To my left is John MacDonald, deputy minister of EIA and secretary to Cabinet. And to my right is Terence Courtoreille, associate deputy minister of the health care system sustainability unit within the department of EIA. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. We're all about doing things differently and thinking out of the box, just like every other Assembly. But, you know, I don't know if I have much more to add than what I've stated before. That's one of the issues I see with government departments, and generally when you say this department does this and this department does this, there's going to be an area where we have -- don't have overlap because of, you know, the realities of mandates and, you know, funding and things like that but where there clearly could be things on either side of that border, it could be with health...

I take the Member's comment. Thank you.

So I'll just say that the court appoints legal counsel in two types of cases. The first is that involve a child protection matter initiated by child and family services, and the second is an access or parenting time dispute between parents. And in both of those instances, there's no obligation on a young child to, you know, try and navigate the justice system on their own. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Tuesday, March 11th, 2025, I will present Bill 22, Legislation Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. So right now the plan is to, in the spring, go and do public consultation and then produce a legislative proposal by the summer and after that is approved, we can start drafting a bill which means the bill could be introduced in the winter sitting of next year. So either the February/March or maybe the May/June sitting. And then it would be with committee. So it would be sometime next year hopefully that it would be passed. And it's -- you know, it is painfully slow often, the development of legislation, because it is complex, there's loss of research that needs to happen and, you...

Thank you. The group met in September, and there was agreement to proceed with that work. So the work is not proceeded -- is not yet started, but there's an agreement to proceed. Thank you.

Thank you. So the court system itself is actually tasked with that role, and they're the ones who would appoint legal counsel for the children. So we don't expect an eight-year-old to go and go to the legal aid office and take a number and wait in line and meet with a lawyer. The court would actually make that determination. Thank you.