Thank you. Bring in some witnesses.

Thank you. Minister Roland, please introduce the witnesses you have with you today.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to my right is the deputy minister of the Department of Health and Social Services, Mr. Chuck Parker; and, to my left, Mr. Mark Aitken, director of legislation, Department of Justice.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Welcome to Mr. Parker and Mr. Aitken to our proceedings this afternoon. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 13. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The question of the transfer, I am in full support of it. I am asking in terms of the support the registrar general in vital statistics will have on the amount of work that possibly could be forthcoming with regard to this legislation. Do we have the support now in the existing system with the existing issues we deal with today? Do we have the support for this change in vital statistics in terms of this new legislation being discussed? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in reviewing this file and the bill, the department feels the department can deal with an additional workload with the support staff that's in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department may feel they can deal with the existing workloads and future workloads of this here; however, I heard some concerns in my region that sometimes these issues take six months to a year to get the information to the people because of the limited resources in the office of vital stats; a simple request for a birth certificate or issues of certificates of marriage and so on. So I am very concerned. I just wanted to make sure again that they know what they are walking into.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the office, indeed in the past, has had some problems dealing with the workload issues within that office. We have paid some attention recently to how that office has been functioning and we've been informed now that they are up to par on all their files and we will continue to monitor the situation. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As the Minister has indicated, they will continue monitoring the situation and the people in my region will continue monitoring this also and duly report back as we see fit. However, Mr. Chair, I want to say one thing. I do support this legislation. I am looking at the types of issues that will be forthcoming in the next couple of months around issues on the residential school issues and them working with the federal government on a different avenue and situations where some of the students that were in residential school who do not have this type of information. As Ms. Lee alluded to regarding John Itsi in Tsiigehtchic and how he explained this situation to us, I look forward on how to deal with issues like that at a community level. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have, in fact, in cases already in that area, been involved in helping individuals prove their name and identification along those lines, so we will continue to work along those lines.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Yakeleya? No? Next on the list for general comments I have Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to also add my support for the lines of comments that the Member for Sahtu has already mentioned and to put on record to make sure adequate resources and preparations

are put in place in the Inuvik office to carry out the provisions of this legislation.

This is important legislation. While it may not be as sexy as other things like...I don't know. I guess there is lots of sexy legislation. This is sort of the nuts and bolts the government is responsible for and if not done properly, it could cause a lot of headache and hardship for our residents. Interestingly enough, this is an issue that has come to my desk a number of times and I am sure to others. There are many of us who have been born with a name and never have to change it for the rest of their lives, but there are many others who have to change their name. In the process, governments do make mistakes or there might be aboriginal people who have had to change their names or Anglicize their names, in some cases. There are immigrants who have come into the country and sometimes are forced to, or choose to, change their names to more friendly English names from their original names. Our opening statement only spoke about changes in marital status and such, but there are lots of other cases where something that seems to be a simple and straightforward name isn't that simple a process.

Until this legislation came about, people had to go through the court process. I do understand that the impetus came from the court side too because administratively, they would rather that they didn't have to be responsible for this responsibility and it's better we are putting it into another wing of a government office. But for the users of the name change, it was a rather intimidating process to have to file a court application to have their name changed and it's quite costly, cumbersome and intimidating.

So in that aspect, I think it's good for both parties that we are enacting legislation that would do away with that process. I just want to ask the Minister once again to make sure that resources are placed properly to get this done.

I think the legislation sets out step by step, in detail, what has to take place to have the change affected. In order for that to go smoothly, the staff responsible will have to be given proper resources and training to make that happen. Having said that though, I would like to ask the Minister to do what he can to see that this legislation comes into force as soon as possible. So I would like to ask the Minister as to when we should expect to see legislation in place. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member brings up a number of good issues that we feel this bill will address: simplifying the process, making it easier for individuals to change their name. As well, one of the factors within this bill will be the consideration when we look in the area of fees, there would be allowances that we could deal with a nil or nominal fee when it comes to names that have been changed where the government had made that change or forced an individual to change their name. So that could be taken into consideration, as well. We are anticipating the bill will come into force April 1, 2008.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Next on the list for general comments I have Mr. Pokiak.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Minister Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there are other areas as well that we would be looking at and one of the other areas would be the maintenance enforcement office would be another area we would notify would be other individuals who are faced with that, would do that as well. Once this is done and the name is changed, it would be published in the Northwest Territories Gazette.

Thank you, Minister Roland. Anything further, Mr. Pokiak?