Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to present the Report of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures on Modernizing our Electoral System: The Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the Election of the 14th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, 1999.

Subsection 164(1)(e) of the Elections Act provides that the Chief Electoral Officer, the CEO, may make recommendations to the Legislative Assembly on any matter that would assist with improving the administration of future elections. If in the opinion of the CEO it may be desirable for the better administration of elections to make amendments to election laws, he may recommend such amendments through a report to the Legislative Assembly.

The report of the CEO was tabled in the Legislative Assembly in July, 2000. On October 9, 2001, the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures conducted a public review with the Chief Electoral Officer. Written submissions were solicited from NWT residents throughout the summer. Two written submissions were received by the committee and are included as appendix 1 in the committee's report. The committee would like to thank David Hamilton, the Chief Electoral Officer, and Glen McLean, the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer of Elections Northwest Territories, for appearing before the committee to discuss the recommendations in the report.

The Chief Electoral Officer made a number of specific recommendations for change to the current electoral system. The committee's responses to the CEO's recommendations and the committee's recommendations to the Legislative Assembly are presented in this report.