Sergeant-at-Arms, if I could get you to escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. If I could get you to introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today I have Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs; Laura Gareau, director of corporate affairs with MACA; and Kelly McLaughlin, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. General comments on the bill, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of general comments on Bill 19. There is a section, I think it’s 31, that talks about reporting. I had questions at committee about that. I got a response from I believe it was the deputy minister and the Minister that it wouldn’t cause an administrative burden on the various lending agencies that the government has, such as the BDIC, student financial assistance and ITI.

Obviously it looks like it’s going to pass. You know,

next year or the year after, are the departments, BDIC or ITI coming forward looking for new positions to deal with billing or making statements on a monthly basis?

I just don’t want to see us again creating an administrative burden for ourselves when we don’t really need to. That was my big fear, Mr. Chairman. I just want to put that on the record again. I will be watching closely as things unfold. Hopefully I’m back next time to keep an eye on things, but thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Any more general comments? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had raised concerns about people who avail themselves of payday loans who are ending up getting charged more than is legally correct for loans, and it was discovered sort of incidentally through associated court cases. This legislation came forward and I am happy to see that it does profile that and address it in the Northwest Territories.

I think especially payday loan-type companies can, through various fees and charges, interest rate applications, end up overcharging people accessing these lendings. Typically, a lot of these people will not have the skills or the inclination to read the fine print and that’s often where these charges are. So it will be critical for clients who use these services to be provided the information in this bill in a plain language form to ensure that they, indeed, understand the law and that consumer protection is achieved. It’s on that basis that I just want to hear the Minister confirm that that communication plan is in place, and that those materials will be provided and readily accessible at all companies providing these sorts of services.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. General comments. What is the wish of committee? No more general comments?

Detail? Does committee agree that we proceed through a clause-by-clause review of Bill 19?

There are a substantial number of clauses. Committee agree that we do the clauses in bulk?

Thank you, committee. We’ll do that. We’ll start with clauses 1 through 10.

---Clauses 1 through 10 inclusive approved

Clauses 11 through 20.

---Clauses 11 through 20 inclusive approved

Clauses 21 through 30.

---Clauses 21 through 30 inclusive approved

Clauses 31 through 40.

---Clauses 31 through 40 inclusive approved

Clauses 41 through 50.

---Clauses 41 through 50 inclusive approved

Clauses 51 through 56.

---Clauses 51 through 56 inclusive approved

Bill as a whole.

Does committee agree that Bill 19 is ready for third reading?

---Bill 19 as a whole approved for third reading