Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would escort the witnesses into the House.

Okay, committee, I will open the floor to general comments on Bill 12. Are there any general comments? Is committee agreed we’ll move to detail?

Mr. Abernethy, would you introduce your witness for us, please?

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today is Mark Aitken. He is the acting assistant deputy minister for the Attorney General branch.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Welcome, Mr. Aitken. Bill 12. We will defer the bill and title page until after we have considered the clause-by-clause. Committee, we’ll move to clause 1.

---Clauses 1 through 4 inclusive approved

We’ll return to the previous page, Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2.

To the bill as a whole.

Does committee agree that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2, is ready for third reading?

---Bill 12 as a whole approved for third reading

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Thank you to your witness. Sergeant-at-

Arms, if you would escort the witness out of the Chamber.

We’ll move onto Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act. We’ll go to the Minister responsible for the bill. Mr. Abernethy, do you have any comments or an introduction to the bill?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m pleased to appear before committee today to speak to you about Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act.

There have not been any credit unions in the Northwest Territories since all of those that had been established failed in the late 1970s. After the depositors of the insolvent credit unions were compensated by the GNWT, a review to determine the cause of the collapse was conducted and one of its conclusions was that the act should be repealed. This was not done at the time, but the act was rendered inoperative with the repeal of most of the regulations and appointments under the act. The Credit Union Act is now very outdated.

Amendments to the Bank Act have been passed that will soon allow local credit unions to be incorporated or branches established under federal legislation. These credit unions would be regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the existing entity that regulates the banks, and deposits will be insured by the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation. I look forward to responding to any questions that committee may have.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I will now go to the chair of the committee that reviewed the bill, the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act, on November 1, 2012. The committee thanks the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill.

The Credit Union Act is so out of date that it is inoperative. There have been no credit unions in the Northwest Territories since 1978. Meanwhile, changes to the federal legislation will soon enable NWT-based credit unions and national credit unions to operate here.

Bill 13 also deletes references to the Credit Union Act in two other territorial acts. Following the committee’s review, a motion was carried to report Bill 13 to the Assembly as ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.

This concludes the committee’s opening comments on Bill 13. Individual Members may have additional questions or comments as we proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Abernethy, do you have witnesses that you would like to bring into the House?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Is committee agreed?

Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witness into the Chamber.

Mr. Abernethy, would you introduce your witnesses, please?

Thank you, Madam Chair. On my left I have Gary McDougall, the director of legal registries. On my right is Lucy Austin, legislative counsel.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Committee will defer consideration of the title page… Right. Do we have any opening comments? I forgot that. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have some general comments. I just want to do due diligence on behalf of being a committee member that was present during the public review on November 1st of this year, with respect to the repeal

of this act.

It would definitely be important to note and, again, to get reaffirmation and confirmation by the department and by the Minister that there is, indeed, no proponent, no one individual or no organization that is currently in the queue for any type of application process with respect to forming, or the intent of a credit union. I’m hoping that within the framework of the general comments that we can get that again, that reaffirmation, that reassurance that if we are going to be repealing, that there is going to be a gap in availability as we’re waiting for the federal statute to occur with respect to the formation of a credit union.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is nobody that we’re aware of. Nobody has expressed an interest or has indicated to the department or the government at this time that they’re interested. Even if there were, there would be a problem anyway. The regulations around the existing act have been pretty much gutted at this point so that even if somebody were to submit, we wouldn’t have the tools to consider them.

The federal government is working on their bill, which will hopefully be in place soon. Then if anybody chooses to pursue this in the future, there will be an opportunity, but there’s been a gap since probably the late ‘70s or early ‘80s until now. As I

said, nobody has approached us expressing any interest to do this in the Northwest Territories.