On October 13, 2000 the Speaker, by letter, charged the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures with the task of reviewing the process for the Legislative Assembly's consideration of certain statutory reports. The Speaker, in his letter, pointed out that:
"There are a large number of reports tabled in the Legislative Assembly, some of which are required to be tabled by legislation. There are a number of these reports that require no review by the Assembly or a committee, but there are those which have to be reviewed and actioned."
The issue to be addressed by the committee was to recommend a mechanism that would serve to automatically refer specific statutory reports to the appropriate standing committee for review after they have been tabled. Such a mechanism would then preclude the House from having to pass a motion of referral to a standing committee each time a specific report was tabled.
In addition, the timely public review of the Report of the Auditor General on Other Matters arising from their examination of the government's public accounts had been hindered because the report could not be tabled as the House was not sitting at the time. In this particular case, a mechanism was required to allow for the Report of the Auditor General and the government's public accounts to be transmitted to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for public review prior to tabling in the Assembly.
In initiating its consideration of these issues the committee first identified the following reports as those that required review on an annual basis and should be referred automatically:
- • Annual Report of the Official Languages Commissioner;
- • Annual Report of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner;
- • Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner; and
- • The Report of the Chief Electoral Officer.
All other reports, annual or otherwise, currently fall under the broad mandates of the current standing committees in accordance with the rules, which state that the committees may "review departmental performance, including that of boards and agencies."
On the matter of statutory reports, the committee agreed that the annual reports of the Languages Commissioner, the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, and the Information and Privacy Commissioner should be referred automatically to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight and that an amendment to the Rules of the Legislative Assembly be proposed to implement this decision.
The committee also agreed that the appropriate committee to be charged with the review of Reports of the Chief Electoral Officer is the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures, and that a further amendment to the rules be proposed to implement this decision.
On the matter of Auditor General's Report and the GNWT Public Accounts, the Rules Committee agreed to propose an amendment to the rules to allow the Speaker and the Minister of Finance to transmit the Auditor General's Report and the GNWT Public Accounts respectively, to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight when the Legislature is not in session. This will allow for public review prior to tabling in the House.