Yes thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I do have a few brief opening remarks, if I may. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of Bill 13, The Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1997 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, by other departments and by Department of Justice staff. Departments responsible for the administration of the various statutes being amended by the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1997 have each reviewed and approved the changes to the statutes under their authority. Most changes proposed in Bill 13 are minor in nature and many consist of grammatical or spelling 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 cease to exist. There are substantive changes, such as amendments to the Education Act, but these are considered to be non-controversial in nature.
Amendments are of such a nature that the preparation and legislative consideration of individual bills to correct each statute would be time-consuming for the government and the Legislative Assembly. In order for an amendment to be included in this 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 it must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence
In our view, the amendments proposed in Bill 13 meet those criteria and I am the official who will be pleased to answer any questions, Mr. Chairman, the committee may have. Thank you.