Thank you. Do we have the concurrence of the committee that the Minister will bring in the witnesses?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Proceed, Sergeant-at-Arms. Would you please bring in the witnesses. For the record, Madam Minister, would you introduce the witnesses to the committee.

Mr. Chairman, on my left is Shawn Flynn, legislative council from the Department of Justice. On my far right is Richard Ashton, senior land advisor and on my immediate right is my deputy minister, David Ramsden.

Thank you. We are dealing with Bill 9, An Act to Amend the Charter Communities Act. We will speak to the specific bill and once the general comments and the bill have been dealt with, we will move on to the next bill. The floor is now open for general comments from the Members. Mr. Arvaluk.

General Comments

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before we proceed with Bill 9, I would like to ask a general question. I just need clarification of the committee report. I'm just a little confused about the last paragraph of the committee's report. I want to be very clear as to how we deal with Bill 9. This part is confusing me a little bit. On the last page, given the age of the legislation and the implementation of various land claims, the committee suggests that the government review the legislation as a whole with a view to bringing it up to date. In other words, do I understand that because this bill is not legislation as a whole, but rather some amendment to the existing legislation. In the next paragraph, it's stated that the committee passed a motion that bills 9 to 12 were ready for consideration in committee of the whole.

It seems confusing to me because maybe I don't understand the procedure here. If I was asking the government to review the legislation as a whole, I would not recommend bills 9 to 12 to be ready for consideration in committee of the whole. Can I have clarification from the chairman before we proceed?

Thank you. Perhaps the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Legislation could try to provide clarification to Mr. Arvaluk's question.

Mr. Chairman, what was the...Did you direct the question to me or to...

---Recording Difficulties

Thank you. It is my understanding that the committee is making a suggestion to the government to amend the existing legislation on bills 9, 10, 11 and 12. We are now reviewing these bills at this point. Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, rather than repeating my presentation four times on the same amendments for each of the bills, I've decided since all the amendments are the same that I'll report all the bills that address the amendments that effect all those individual bills with regard to quarries.

The other thing that I just wanted to mention to Mr. Arvaluk is that we just had municipal acts during the last session. Again, in order to address the legal issue, the Minister had to come up with new amendments. Every time there is a problem, the department comes to the standing committee to amend those small problems that are popping up. The suggestion here is that the Minister should come up with a more up-to-date review of the whole act so we are not continuously piecemealing the sections to satisfy the department.

Thank you. Mr. Arvaluk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You mean the committee is requesting the government to come up with a new bill, after the amendments have been passed for these bills, from Bill 9 to Bill 12. Are you asking them, after these bills are passed, to put together all of this legislation to bring it up- to-date? As long as I have that understanding, I have no problem in dealing with the amendments. Qujannamiik.

Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, we are requesting the department to do that; to have a comprehensive review of all the municipal bills, so that we don't run into the problem of continuously having to deal with small amendments to all of these acts.

Thank you. General comments regarding Bill 9. Do we agree to go clause by clause?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Clause By Clause

Bill 9, An Act to Amend the Charter Communities Act. Clause 1.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Clause 2.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Clause 4. Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, although the act is straightforward and deals with the whole legal issue of who gives the directive to the municipalities or authority in order for them to operate and charge fees to quarries, part of my presentation dealt with aboriginal claimant groups. I would like to satisfy my own constituency and perhaps even the constituencies of people who don't have land claims, and question whether the whole issue of lands, the ownership of land and what is on it, has been addressed. Has the department dealt with what happens to areas in which lands are still in dispute and have never been surrendered by way of land claims? Do you have legal opinions on that?

Thank you. I have to correct myself. After clauses 1 and 2, I asked for agreement of clause 4. It is actually clause 3. Madam Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In my opening remarks, I indicated that aboriginal rights are protected under the Constitution Act which is a superior to any act of the Northwest Territories. So, there is protection under the Constitution Act.

Thank you. Mr. Gargan.