Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sometimes progress can be very slow when it comes to enacting legislation. In my Member's statement of April 13th last, I spoke of the need to change or enact several pieces of legislation. One such piece is the Labour Standards Act. In some ways, Mr. Speaker, I have come full circle in regard to the Labour Standards Act. I have sought and received the support of two previous Ministers of Justice to enact changes to this legislation. I had first approached, Minister Ng, and then Minister Arlooktoo. I also questioned the Minister responsible for regulatory reform, Mr. Kakfwi. Mr. Speaker, this House even supported a motion I presented over a year ago to review and amend the Labour Standards Act as it pertains to commissioned employees. I have also written letters to both the Ministers of the day in an attempt to respond to concerns from both employees and employers alike.
Mr. Speaker, amendments are badly needed to this act. Employees affected are commissioned employees such as real estate agents, waitresses and waiters, taxi drivers, salespersons, hairdressers, as well as the employers of these occupations, to name a few. I had been told by Mr. Arlooktoo a review had been done on this act. My motion of February, 1998, requested that the government bring these amendments before the Legislative Assembly for consideration at the fall sitting last year.
In June of last year the Minister of the day, Mr. Arlooktoo, indicated his department was planning to have the necessary changes go through the committee process and the House as part of the bill last fall. October was to be the month, Mr. Speaker, but that never happened. All Members who have been working for legislative change know the process can be all but exhausting and to say the least frustrating, but I vowed to follow this through, Mr. Speaker. Later today I will be questioning the Minister of Justice, Mr. Kakfwi, about amendments that are needed to the Labour Standards Act and I sincerely hope that he will honour the commitments made by previous Ministers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.