Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures is pleased to provide its report on the introduction of electronic petitions in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories and commends it to the House.

Introduction

Petitions are formal requests submitted to a Legislature. They are a vehicle for the public to influence policy-making and legislation and to bring their concerns to the attention of the Assembly. The act of petitioning has been described as the oldest of parliamentary forums. Citizens have used them for hundreds of years in the western parliamentary tradition, to state their grievances and ask their government for help. Today many jurisdictions permit electronic as well as handwritten petitions to be presented in the Legislatures.

On June 4, 2009, the Legislative Assembly directed the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures to undertake research to determine the consequences of allowing the use of electronic petitions in the Northwest Territories. The Assembly further requested that the committee pay particular attention to concerns regarding security of the petition site and the authenticity of on-line signatures.

The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures examined issues related to technology, implementation and cost. Committee looked to other jurisdictions with on-line petition sites, particularly the Parliaments of Quebec, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania in Australia, and the Scottish Parliament.

In Committee Report 1-16(1), the standing committee recommended the implementation of an electronic petition pilot project to enhance the traditional petition system currently in place. On May 20, 2010, the Legislative Assembly adopted the motion to implement an electronic petition pilot project to run from October 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011. A second motion further recommended that the Office of the Clerk undertake an evaluation of

the project at completion and that the evaluation be provided to the 17th Legislative Assembly.

The present report presents the results of this evaluation and makes recommendations for the future.

Mr. Speaker, with your concurrence, I will now pass this on to my colleague Mr. Hawkins, to continue the report.