Lawyers protest plan to close N.W.T.'s only law library

The Northwest Territories government is pulling $223,000 in funding for the territory's only law library and lawyers are concerned this will limit public access to legal resources.

Lawyer Sandra MacKenzie said she just found out this week about the plan to close the library through the Law Society of the N.W.T. 

"It's an important resource for the members of the bar and members of the public," she said.

She said the reference books to which the library provides access are expensive and the closure will affect smaller firms and people representing themselves in court. 

"It needs to continue in some form, whether it's in a different building or is limited to online resources that people can access," she said.

"There needs to be some form of access to legal information for people of the Northwest Territories."

The library is located in the Yellowknife courthouse building. According to statistics provided by the department of Justice, there has been a 48 per cent drop in the number of requests for reference material at the library from the 2009 fiscal year to the 2015 fiscal year. The number of walk-ins has also decreased by 28 per cent in the same time frame.

Defence lawyer Paul Falvo said he uses the library every week and he questions some of the department's numbers. 

"There is a piece of paper there that members of the law society are asked to write their names on, but many people don't," he said.

"I see people in that library every day and I often don't see their names written on the paper. Members of the public are not signing in."

Falvo said some of resources in the library are available online, but many are not free.

"Publishers are moving to put everyone online, but that is often at a great cost to the subscriber," he said.

"This is a library. It's where people can access books without having to pay for it."

Falvo said if the territory goes ahead with its plan to close the law library, the Northwest Territories will be the only province or territory in the country without one.

He said he has not heard of any plan to make all the resources in the library free to the public online.