Thank you, Mr. Whitford. The motion is in order. To the motion. Do we have a quorum? Yes, we have a quorum. To the motion. I'm told that copies have already been provided in the context of the remarks by Mr. Whitford, and I am informed that the motion is also translated into the appropriate language; it is a tradition that we translate it into Inuktitut. To the motion. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Being a Member of the committee, I fully support the motion. Thanks.

Thank you. Mr. Zoe.

Thank you, Mr. Zoe. To the motion.

Question.

Question is being called. All those in favour of the motion, please signify in the usual manner. All those opposed, please signify. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 28, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, is fairly short; however, I would offer the Minister the opportunity to bring in his witnesses to allow the Members to make general comments.

Yes, I would, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

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

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Proceed.

Thank you. Mr. Minister, for the record, please introduce the witness to the committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Mr. Mark Aitken, legislative counsel from the Department of Justice, Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Welcome to the committee, Mr. Aitken. The floor is now open for general comments. Can we have order here, please? Order. General comments.

Clause by clause.

Clause By Clause

I hear clause by clause. We shall get into clause by clause. We are proceeding clause by clause on Bill 28. Clause 1. Mr. Zoe.

Committee Motion 46-12(7), To Refer Bill 28 To Standing Committee On Legislation, Defeated

Do we have a quorum here? There is no quorum so I shall ring the bell. Order; can we have order here? To the motion. It is not debatable. All those in favour of the motion? All those opposed? Point of order, Member for Thebacha.

Point Of Order

There's so much discussion here, Mr. Chairman, I can't hear clearly. Can you tell us what the motion is, please, with regard to this? Thank you.

Thank you. I believe the motion moved by Mr. Zoe is to refer Bill 28, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, to the Standing Committee on Legislation. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is defeated.

---Defeated

Can we have order here, please? Clause 1. Yes, Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Chairman, this particular clause, this whole bill, has caused some concern and I want you to know, just for the record, some of the concerns that I had expressed. First of all, in order to alleviate the concerns, we brought forth this motion. I think this clause in itself is only trying to give the authority to the Premier on a piecemeal basis. It's not giving her the full authority, the proper authority and accountability.

This bill, as it is, is asking that she be given the authority to revoke appointments of Cabinet. We all know that every Cabinet Member is appointed by the Legislative Assembly. I felt it was unfair that she be given the authority to revoke an appointment without having the ability to appoint those Members accordingly. I felt that we have had an understanding that we gave her extra powers in order to be able to revoke appointments by requesting undated resignations from each of her Ministers. With that, that is how she would address it if she had to revoke an appointment. I feel that, as the bill is being presented, it does not address the total concerns of the Assembly. I feel that the bill in itself should bring in an amendment that would give the Premier the authority to appoint Ministers and, at the same time, revoke appointments as she or he deems required.

I think, simultaneously, these two bills should come in together and it's unfortunate that it hasn't gone back to committee because if this motion had passed, they could come in simultaneously to address both of those concerns. That's what's causing the confusion in the House on this particular bill. It's only dealing with the problem on a piecemeal basis, and we're trying to give it a Band-Aid solution. Those are my comments on that particular bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Clause 1. Mr. Ballantyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, unfortunately, this one got a little bit sidetracked. Because Members had concerns, I had no problem with it going back to committee but that was defeated. Basically, the way I see it, the first part will be passed now and then we'll have another shot at the further amendment in June. If Members don't like that part, they can vote against it in June. I'm going to support it, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Clause 1. Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree with the Member for Yellowknife North that we've been distracted by the committee's motion about future amendments. What we should be addressing today is the amendment to the act before the House. Mr. Chairman, all I want to say about that is that I think the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories has already expressed, in the Territorial Leadership Committee in the fall of 1987, its wish that the then Government Leader, now Premier, should have authority to monitor the performance and discipline Members of the Executive Council. That motion was approved by the Territorial Leadership Committee in the fall of 1987.

I think this amendment to the Legislative Assembly and Executive Act simply gives voice to the earlier stated intention of the Legislative Assembly that it would be consistent with responsible government that the head of Cabinet, the chair of the Executive Council, should have increased authority to discipline and hold Members of the Executive Council accountable for their actions to the Government Leader.

Mr. Chairman, I think this is just formalizing what the Assembly has already accepted and adopted eight years ago. It's just giving expression to that resolution that was adopted earlier by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Clause 1. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Finance asked for some sort of authority for the Premier to discipline the Members of the Cabinet and for the government to come forward with Bill 28. This one here gives the authority to the Premier to revoke the appointment of a person under section 1. That was for disciplinary action.

Now the report of the Standing Committee on Legislation goes further than that, where it's given direction to the government to draft a further amendment that would enable the Premier to appoint Members of the Assembly. I have a difficult time with that and I don't think the Members here had time to talk about it. I didn't know this bill was going to...This wasn't in the document. I just received it today, this motion. It was never explained to me by any Member of the Standing Committee on Legislation that this motion was in place. If I had known that, I would have put some thought into it. However, that didn't happen and so it is causing me some problems with trying to support this bill, even though it came from the Standing Committee on Finance regarding disciplinary actions.

I have some problems with that. If it was clear-cut and went back to the committee, we would have further time to deal with this, but it seems the majority here just want to rush through it. What I see in future years, through the Deficit Elimination Act that we have agreed on, is that it will give direction to the next government and the Minister of Finance. Now we're giving a lot of authority to the Premier to dismiss Cabinet Members. There is also direction for further amendments to be drafted so the Premier will be able to appoint Members.

It's going to change the whole way this Legislative Assembly works, especially the Cabinet, the next time around and I don't know if I want to go that far. We've talked about it, yes; we've talked about this possibility, and the direction that was suggested from SCOF was to give a little more authority to the Premier so that if the Premier has problems with future Cabinet Members, there is a way to deal with that. That was as far as we could go, but now we're piecemealing it. We're dealing with an amendment here that would dismiss Executive Council Members and then we're looking to another amendment down the line to give authority to the Premier to hire these people.

So we're firing these people before we hire them.

---Laughter

I don't know. I don't see the logic of it. If we're going to do it together, then we should take it back to the committee and do it right the first time. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I think we've done this once before this session. If Members would feel more comfortable, I will not proceed with third reading of this bill until the other issue is cleared up. If it clears committee of the whole, I'll hold this amendment and not go to third reading until the other issue has been taken care of. That may speed things up, Mr. Chairman, thank you.

Thank you. Clause 1 of Bill 28.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Clause 2.

Agreed.

---Agreed

The bill as a whole.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Does the committee agree that Bill 28, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, is ready for third reading?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Bill 28 is now ready for third reading. Thank you. Qujannamiik. I would like to thank the honourable Minister. Member for Thebacha.

Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding from Mr. Pollard's comments to us that this bill would be held until the amendments came forth. Is that not correct? So therefore, this bill would not be ready for third reading, is that correct?

Thank you. Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, the same as we did before earlier this session, yes, the bill is ready for third reading but the government will not proceed with third reading of the bill until the other issues have been resolved. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.