Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this act is to amend the Financial Administration Act to provide retroactive approval to the Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs to enter into, as at April 1, 1999, an indemnification agreement with the federal, provincial and other territorial governments for the exchange of information under the Cooperative Enforcement Agreement On Consumer Related Measures.
The Cooperative Enforcement Agreement is intended to reduce inter-provincial-territorial consumer related fraud through the exchange of information or assistance. Cooperation under this agreement includes, but is not limited to, requests for:
- • Assistance in the enforcement of a statute listed within the schedule to the agreement; and,
- • Information respecting a person regulated by any statute listed in the schedule which relates to:
(a) number and types of complaints against that person; and
(b) financial information on a particular business other than that collected as part of a business registration process.
The agreement requires the requesting party to indemnify and hold harmless the party supplying the information or assistance from any or all claims arising out of the requestor's use of the information. By their very nature, such indemnities are not quantifiable until such time as a court judgment or an out of court settlement is reached. Were the Government of the Northwest Territories to be sued for "misuse" of this information, it would be expected that this would be an exceedingly rare circumstance. In addition, mechanisms are already in place to report contingent liabilities such as pending lawsuits within the public accounts of the Northwest Territories.
Consequently, the request by the former chairman of the Standing Committee on Government Operations that Members be given 14 days advance notification of any indemnities under this agreement would not be practical. Therefore, no provision for such has been made in this bill. The former chairman was informed of this decision and its rationale prior to the submission of this bill.
I would note that this agreement has been signed and the bill seeks a retroactive effective date. The timing of the signing of this agreement was due to the timing of the intergovernmental initiative by which these agreements were worked out. To avoid taking any action that may give rise to a liability the government has made no requests pursuant to the agreement and will not make any such requests unless this bill is passed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.