This is page numbers 3073 - 3114 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was languages.

Topics

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, unless Members highlight some of their concerns for clarification, but, Mr. Chairman, I only wanted to highlight that this was a significant problem and some of the things that were batted around and we look forward to the information that comes forward from the Chief Electoral Officer, of course, was to standardize the pre-election information such as authorized by the committee and so things could be standardized and created consistent. So campaign candidates didn’t have to create two types of material for such a short period. It works in the federal election using “…authorized by the committee to elect…” and that type of thing. That’s why this issue…As well as clarification of where it’s located and size. There were signs, of course,

micro-small and other issues. But ultimately this was a big concern. I thought it warranted at least the emphasis of that. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Question is being called.

---Carried

Mr. Hawkins.

Committee Motion 37-16(3): Rules And Procedures Report 4-16(3): Provision And Format Of Voters List, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

May 27th, 2009

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Chairman, I move that this committee recommends that the Elections and Plebiscite Act be amended to give the Chief Electoral Officer the authority to provide the voters list in a digital format which can be manipulated to all candidates and to the elections candidates immediately after the election period. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That word “manipulated,” to the public I don’t think that is going to go over very well. I think we have to come up with a different word, maybe “utilized” or “used” or something to that effect. “Manipulated” isn’t very good.

An Honourable Member

Reformatted.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will speak to the motion. It’s only under the context that people can use the data. Perhaps the word could have been chosen a little differently, but it’s really meant in the context of being able to use the data and sort it on, for example, an Excel spreadsheet. The information that was provided -- the public’s information that is -- to candidates was in a pdf form and Members who were candidates and whatnot, they could only print it off. They couldn’t move it around, shuffle it, create databases. It was you take it as you get it and print it off and then you had to manually go retype stuff. So it was a significant issue in a number of electoral districts by a number of candidates. In the 2003 election, the voters list was provided in an Excel format and with that candidates were able to sort districts, sort streets and reformat them. So, Mr. Chairman, the principle of the word “manipulated’ is nothing more than from a sense of reorganizing information. Unfortunately, it has a negative sound to it and it’s not meant in that method in any way. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I tend to agree that the word may not be the best choice but the motion is still sound in the fact that it talks to everybody getting a digital form of the list and every Member, not every Member, but every individual running in a constituency would get the same list and they can use that list in a database or a spreadsheet which can be sorted and tabulated. That’s what we are talking about here. We are not talking about different people getting different lists. We are talking about people in a riding getting the same list in a format that is actually usable as opposed to that useless pdf that was provided to all candidates last election.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Moving on to Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you. This is my first opportunity to express comments on this because I was not able to be at the committee review and I have to say that was the strangest thing that electors list in the 2007 election; having been through ’99 and the 2003 campaigns where the electors list was a useable format. I am not going to use manipulative, but those lists are provided to all candidates, so there is no question about anyone getting any unfair advantage and the whole point of it is that we find out who are voters are so we can go and see them and talk to them and have good data where we can do our job. I could not understand why we got this pdf form.

Another thing is candidates often help the elections office with the updating on the list. The lists we get on elections day when it’s called is often not a complete list. So I think this motion I support and it should be interpreted in the most usable format possible for the candidate that the CEO should provide. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Ms Lee. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Question is being called.

---Carried

Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Elections and Plebiscite Act be amended to permit the Chief Electoral Officer to collect information from the NWT Health Care Plan registrations list and the Student Financial Assistance student list for use in compiling a Northwest Territories voters list.

And further, that the Medical Care Act and the Student Financial Assistance Act be amended to support these changes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to give a bit of an explanation. One of the large problems which all candidates experienced in the last election was the voters list, which were really inaccurate and really somewhat unusable. One of the concerns expressed to us by the Chief Electoral Officer at committee was the difficulty of getting relevant data without doing an actual enumeration and they tried to use a previous list for the list that we got in 2007. So enabling the Chief Electoral Officer to use health information and Student Financial Assistance information will make the list more complete and also more accurate. So that’s where this recommendation is coming from. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Question has been called.

---Carried

Let’s see. We have about three more minutes. Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee recommends that the Elections and Plebiscite Act be amended to remove the requirement that returning officers and other officials must be residents of the electoral district. Thank you.

The Chair

The Chair Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The motion is in order. To the motion.