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.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the Standing Committee on Legislation, I am pleased to be able to report on Bill 14, Miscellaneous Statutes Amending Act, 1994. The Standing Committee on Legislation has completed its review of Bill 14, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amending Act. The committee held public hearings on this bill in Yellowknife on Tuesday, December 13, 1994 and no presentations from the public were heard, primarily due to the nature of this bill.

Bill 14 proposes to make minor amendments to a variety of statutes all at once. It corrects a number of inconsistencies and errors that have been discovered in the statutes of the Northwest Territories. The bill also proposes to repeal a number of provisions of statutes that are redundant, have expired, or otherwise ceased to have effect.

In reviewing the Miscellaneous Statutes Amending Act, the standing committee was satisfied that the criteria set out by the Department of Justice for amendments to be included in this bill had been met. However, the committee would like to make a comment on an aspect of this bill, in particular, and all bills in general. Often amendments are proposed in the French text in a piece of legislation. In these cases, even though the changes are often small, it would greatly assist committee Members if the nature of these amendments could be explained, either in the bill itself or an accompanying document.

Mr. Chairman, this completes the Standing Committee on Legislation's report on Bill 14. On December 13, 1994, the committee passed a motion that Bill 14 be reported as ready for consideration in committee of the whole. Thank you.

Yes, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me on my right, Mr. Richard Denis, the manager of legal translation, Department of Justice.