Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Standing Committee on Legislation has completed Bill 6, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The committee heard the concerns of various stakeholders, including the Languages Commissioner, representatives of the various unions, the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, the city of Yellowknife, Dene Nation President Bill Erasmus and the Western Arctic New Democratic Party.
The committee has carefully considered the comments made by each presenter and made several recommendations to Bill 6, based on the comments received. In its report, the committee highlighted several issues which were expressed during its review. These concerns included: the exclusion of the office of the Legislative Assembly from the definition of public body; the application of the act to municipal governments; the override of exemptions to be 25 years; the inclusion of a definition of aboriginal government; the authority of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to enforce a provision of the legislation; the charging of fees for services; and, the translation of documents into the official languages.
All the concerns were addressed by the Commissioner during the hearing in committee, with the exception of translation services. Mr. Chairman, I would be pleased to hear comments from Members about the standing committee's report and, when this is concluded, I will have a recommendation to move.