I am pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Protection Against Family Violence Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of this bill.
The purpose of the Protection Against Family Violence Act is to provide emergency and long-term protection for victims of family violence. The act also allows emergency access to assist a person who may be the subject of family violence.
In 2011 an evaluation examined the first five years of the act’s operation, to determine how the
legislation was meeting its goals. The recommendations from the evaluation prompted departmental staff to identify several issues that could benefit from legislative amendments. In the 2012 Nuttal v. Kikoak decision, Justice Schuler, senior judge of the Supreme Court, ruled that she was unable to vary an emergency protection order error unless a separate court-ordered hearing was held to make the correction.
This legislation corrects an ambiguity within the current act, and provides the Supreme Court with authority to vary an emergency protection order during the review process, rather than having to convene a separate hearing. It also provides the department the authority to review emergency protection order transcripts for training and evaluation purposes, and increases the maximum fine under the act to underscore the seriousness of making a false statement or breaching a protection order.
I would be pleased to answer questions that the committee members may have regarding Bill 17.