Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Dec 01/99) - Kivalliq's need has been heard and a family court lawyer will soon be practising in the region.

Bonnie Tulloch, the only practising lawyer residing in Kivalliq, says the issue was addressed during the early November meeting of the Legal Services Board in Iqaluit.

"A letter was on the agenda from my board of directors here in the Keewatin," says Tulloch.

"We asked for a family court lawyer for our region and outlined our understanding of the need for such a lawyer."

Legal Services Board members approved the hiring of a family court lawyer after hearing the letter.

Tulloch says it's her understanding the new lawyer will be stationed in Rankin Inlet as part of the Kivalliq-based clinic.

"I received a call telling me they were in the process of posting the position and were going to make Dec. 31 the closing date.

"January will be devoted to screening and going through the hiring process.

"I'm hopeful that by the end of January we'll have somebody in place."

Tulloch says the announcement means a great deal to people with family court problems in the Kivalliq.

"I recently went away for only a week and when I returned there were a number of calls from people having problems with family law and requiring help.

"I can only give them a limited amount of help. What they really need is a lawyer residing here who they can talk to and spend some time with."

Tulloch says she is happy with how quickly the matter has been handled since she first raised her concerns publicly in November.

She says the Legal Services Board couldn't meet until then because of the creation of Nunavut and the time it took to appoint members to the board.

"They set it up very quickly and dealt with it. I'm actually shocked at the speed.

"It could, quite possibly, turn out the new lawyer may end up doing other matters when there's a shortage, but certainly they'd be responsible to the Keewatin clients and that's a very good thing for this region.

"I don't know all the details yet on how exactly everything will work, but the way it's been set up, we should have someone in place very quickly."