Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development reviewed Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act, at its meeting on May 9th, 2002. This bill amends the Liquor Act to permit raffle tickets to be sold or drawn on licensed premises. The amendment will also allow raffle tickets to be sold or drawn and Nevada tickets to be sold or drawn on licensed premises where the liquor license holder has a lottery license to do so. In this case, the liquor license holder is required to comply with the Lotteries Act and regulations.

The committee would like to thank the Honourable Joe Handley, Minister of Finance, his officials, and those of the Department of Justice who appeared before the committee to present the bill and respond to the issues raised by the committee.

During discussions on Bill 11, some committee members expressed concern regarding the apparent piecemeal changes that were being proposed to the Liquor Act. Committee members may have additional comments or questions on this legislation during the review in committee of the whole.

During the public hearing, a motion was proposed and the Minister concurred with the motion to further clarify the definition of lottery license. This concludes the committee's comments on Bill 11, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Would the Minister care to bring in any witnesses? Mr. Handley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Does the committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses in? Mr. Handley, for the record, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With me are Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; Joe La Ferla, manager of policy and planning for Finance; and Diane Buckland, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. I will open the floor to general comments. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make a short comment. As the Member for Range Lake in Yellowknife, I was one of the Members who was contacted by members of the general public who had learned, by a visit from the liquor inspector, that something they had been doing for a long, long time to raise money for a social cause was deemed to be illegal. I believe it had to do with the raffling off of a turkey for Easter in one of the licensed premises in my riding.

I am in complete agreement with the purpose and spirit of this legislation and the fact that something that everyone believed to be something very benign and a legal act was deemed to be illegal, and this will now make everyone law-abiding citizens.

I would just like to state my support for this legislative amendment and also thank the Minister and his staff for moving quickly to correct what appeared to be a legislative gap or misunderstanding in the legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. No questions there, but would you like to respond to any of those comments, Mr. Handley?

Mr. Chairman, no, I do not have a response. I appreciate the comments. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, one thing as this was being considered and through comments from the committee, as the Minister stated in his opening comments, there was a concern that in communities where they have the authority under the Lotteries Act, they can establish more restrictive regimes if they felt it was necessary. I think this was an important move to recognize that communities in some cases might not want to see something like this and they will have the ability to impose it.

One thing I wanted pointed out from the Minister and probably his staff is an important part of the provision of Bill 11, as the Minister stated, that will allow communities that have been delegated authority under the Lotteries Act to impose more restrictive regimes. Under Bill 11, as I read the amendments, it is reflecting the purposes of the tickets, the raffle tickets and so on. Can we get clarification on that?

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Chairman, I will have my deputy, Margaret Melhorn, answer that question.

Ms. Melhorn.

Thank you, Ms. Melhorn. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the department for that. So then already existing in the Lotteries Act is a regime that is set up so that a community that has been delegated the authority can bring in a more restrictive regime. That is already built into the Lotteries Act as it sits? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Ms. Melhorn.

General comments. Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. I would suggest that we have gone a bit beyond the scope of this bill here, but I will allow the Minister to respond. Mr. Handley.