Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 21/01) - Though taxpayers ultimately bear the cost, almost all the legal bills associated with this week's special committee hearings will be paid by the GNWT's Department of the Executive.

The assembly's board of management has agreed to pay only the legal fees of conflict commissioner Carol Roberts. Legislative assembly clerk David Hamilton said the board is bound by law to pay them.

The executive, the bureaucracy behind cabinet, will be footing the legal bills for Premier Stephen Kakfwi, Health and Social Services Minister Jane Groenewegen, John Bayly, Lynda Sorensen and April Taylor.

Deputy secretary to cabinet Allan Cash said there is no policy in place outlining in what circumstance cabinet ministers' legal bills should or should not be paid by the government.

Cabinet made the decision to pay for independent counsel for Kakfwi and Groenewegen, Cash said.

An earlier dispute over the terms of a contract between the legislative assembly and Robert's lawyers has been resolved, said assembly law clerk Katherine Peterson.

No tally has been made of the cost of the process so far because few of the legal bills have been submitted.

The chairman of the special committee, Brendan Bell, has promised a full accounting when the bills do come in.