Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to provide the Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations on Looking to the Future: the Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the Election of the Thirteenth Legislative Assembly of the NWT 1995.
The Report of the Chief Electoral Officer was tabled in the Legislative Assembly in May 1996. In October 1996, the Standing Committee on Government Operations reviewed the report with public hearings.
The Committee would like to thank Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, and David Hamilton, Clerk of the Assembly, for appearing before us to discuss the recommendations in the report.
The Chief Electoral Officer made a number of recommendations for change to the current elections system. In many cases, similar recommendations were also made in his previous report in 1991, for instance, but were not acted on by the previous Assembly. As a result of recent history, members of the Standing Committee see a clear need to implement these recommendations to avoid some of the significant difficulties which have arisen out of the 1995 election, particularly in the areas of complaints and enforcement and proxy voting.
Mr. Speaker, that concludes my introductory comments on this Report. The Report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations on Looking to the Future:the Report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on the Election of the Thirteenth Legislative Assembly of the NWT 1995, and I would therefore move that it be received and moved into Committee of the Whole for discussion.