Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to continue on the thread that I started with my Member's statement and ask questions. I believe these fall to the Premier as the leader of our government.
Mr. Speaker, has the Premier reviewed our ability to draft and move legislation forward and considered any systemic changes to improve our ability to respond to emerging issues more effectively? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The drafting of legislation is really done within the Department of Justice, but I can speak to the general process.
There are a number of issues that might hold up drafting, and as Minister of Justice, I did become familiar with those. I would often have other Ministers come to me and say, why is the department so slow. Well, it turns out there's more than just the drafting. There's also the drafting instructions, and sometimes when you're drafting legislation, a policy question comes up and you need to go back to the department and figure out that policy question.
And so we've taken -- made efforts to work with departments to let them know that upfront there's going to be questions that the department -- that the drafters might have and that the department needs to be prepared to answer those. And better yet, having a very comprehensive set of drafting instructions at the very beginning would be important. And so we've moved to make those types of changes, and I think that we've seen some improvements. We've also prioritized different types of legislation to ensure that we have a better handle on what's actually being drafted and where those resources are being used. So as a Cabinet, we recognize this issue and we have taken steps to rectify it to the extent that we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I certainly appreciate that reply, and I think as we -- as we often acknowledge in this House, there's certainly a need for continuous improvement in government. We have a big, complex machine here, and there's certainly always better and more efficient ways we can do things.
Mr. Speaker, could the Premier comment on what would help us address the capacity constraints which are so often cited when MLAs are advocating for legislative changes or development? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So there are capacity challenges in that, especially in the French language drafters. Drafting legislation is a very specialized skill. Not any lawyer can do it. You really have to have that background and that type of education. And as a territory, we do have a number of official languages, and because we are a creation of the federal government, we are legally required to present all legislation in both English and French. And across Canada, there are very few French language drafters, and it can often be difficult to procure those services. When we can, we go out and we contract services. That being said, it can be hard to parachute somebody into a legislative project and just have them pick up at a midpoint, or, you know, it's hard to tack people onto a project that's already ongoing.
And so those are some of the systemic issues that we're facing as well. The drafters in the Department of Justice draft all of the Regular Member legislation that's brought forward, and as Cabinet, we don't have eyes on that. There's a real wall between that legislation and Cabinet. And so when I was Minister, I was not aware of any sort of work that the drafters were doing for the private Members' bills. And so that's another issue that we're looking at, but -- or not looking at, but that's another issue that just exists. I am not going to try and figure out what's going on over there. Members can do what they need to do with their own drafting. If the Assembly wanted to procure some drafters, then that would probably help the government with its drafting capacity. So, you know, these are just kind of ideas off the cuff here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I certainly appreciate the off-the-cuff ideas. I am trying to generate a conversation here that goes beyond issue by issue trying to address this and think more about the systemic issues which affect many of the issues which we see raised here. So, Mr. Speaker, what has this government been doing to improve our efficiency and ability to respond to issues with legislative gaps raised by MLAs?
And I know the Premier started to answer that question already. But a different take I am going to put on it here is, do we track how often issues are raised by MLAs and use that data to inform legislative priorities? For example, the child and youth advocate position that we talked about the other day, which has been raised many hundreds of times by MLAs, are we tracking that kind of data and using it to inform our legislative drafting priorities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I doubt there is a database of all the issues MLAs have brought up. We would need a department to do that kind of work. It's quite extensive. Just today we've had hours and hours of debate where we've heard probably thousands of different ideas. So no, I don't think there is a comprehensive database. That said, the way the consensus government is supposed to work is that Members raise issues in the House, Members raise issues in standing committees, governments hear those issues, governments bring forward proposals, they get feedback on that, and that all of this informs the direction the Cabinet takes, whether it is drafting or whether it is policies and programs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
