Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The purpose of Bill 14, Miscellaneous Statutes Amending Act, 1994, is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories in which errors, inconsistencies or anomalies have been identified and brought to the attention of the Department of Justice by members of the judiciary, Department of Justice staff, other government employees or private citizens.
The departments responsible for the administration of the various statutes being amended by the Miscellaneous Statutes Amending Act, 1994, have each reviewed and approved the changes to the statutes under their authority.
The changes proposed in Bill 14 are non-controversial in nature and usually consist of grammatical corrections to either the English or French version of a statute. Other changes have the effect of repealing certain provisions of the statutes that have expired, lapsed or otherwise ceased to exist. The amendments are of such a nature that the preparation and legislative consideration of individual bills to correct each act would be time-consuming for the government and the Legislative Assembly. In order for an amendment to be included in the bill, it had to meet the following criteria:
a)It must not be controversial;
b)It must not involve the spending of public funds;
c)It must not prejudicially affect the rights of persons; and,
d)It must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.
Mr. Chairman, in our view, the amendments proposed in Bill 14 meet those criteria. My officials and I will be pleased to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you.