Thank you, Premier McLeod. Bill 13, Devolution Measures Act. General comments. Mr. Bromley.
Debates of March 11th, 2014
This is page numbers 4327 – 4378 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th 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 health.
Topics
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just on this and the subsequent bills here today, has the GNWT consulted with the Aboriginal governments regarding the contents of these bills?
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob McLeod Yellowknife South
Thank you, Madam Chair. In every instance these bills were shared with our Aboriginal government partners for input and for feedback. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you. I note that Bills 13, 16 and 17 are not mirror legislation. So I’m wondering why we’re only seeing these bills now. Could they not have gone through some form of public review and consultation?
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Fulford
Madam Chair, unfortunately, with Canada’s legislative process in Bill C-15, many of the changes to the mirror legislation were not known until relatively recently and so we could not know with any certainty what further consequential amendments would be required to the GNWT’s suite of legislation. So that’s why you saw the first three bills, Bills 1, 2 and 3, we were able to come out of the gate quickly with those because they didn’t depend on any of the content of Bill C-15. With everything else, to a greater or lesser extent or just as a precautionary measure, we had to assume that further changes could be required. So everything else had to come later. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob McLeod Yellowknife South
Further to that, Madam Chair, Bills 16 and 17 were not finalized until a couple of weeks ago. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you, Madam Chair. And yet we’ve heard that they’ve fully consulted with all of our Aboriginal partners. So, for this government not to have consulted with committee on this I regard as a major shirking of the responsibility of this government and I’m very upset about that. These are not mirror legislation. So, obviously, the Premier claims we have a consensus government here and clearly we do not. He has even said in their statement, all parties to the agreement. Clearly, we’re not regarded as a party to this agreement and neither is the public. So I just want to very clearly stress how shabby I think that process has been.
Specifically on Bill 13, Section 6 of the bill, somehow changes how legislators dissolve through an election, and if there is some clarity that can be provided to that. It’s probably a simple thing, but I don’t understand it. And I have a couple other questions. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob McLeod Yellowknife South
Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 17, the Northwest Territories Resources Revenue Sharing Agreement, was an agreement that was negotiated amongst the Aboriginal governments themselves for their share or their agreement. The second part to his question, I’ll ask Mr. Thomas Druyan, through you, Madam Chair, to respond.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Druyan
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to Member Bromley. There were two major changes to the wording in this. One was to change the references to the Federal Governor or General-in-Counsel to the Commissioner and the other one was to change the references from 9 sub 3 to 11 sub 1 of the proposed federal Northwest Territories Act. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
The Chair Jane Groenewegen
Thank you. Did you want to just state that last comment if you could put it on the record, please, Mr. Druyan just about the changes? Mr. Druyan.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Druyan
Sorry, Madam Chair, you’d like me to repeat that?
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Druyan
The second major change was the section number reference from 9.(3) in the current NWT Act to the new 11.(1) in Bill C-15. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Thank you. Yes, I do see that. I’m just wondering if I can have a plain language interpretation of what that actually means. I know that I’m speaking to a legal professional here. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Druyan
Thank you. It almost seems to speak for itself that basically it is preserving the right of the Commissioner to call an election under the act in accordance with the timing requirements. So the new 11.(1) would be five years. In the old 9.(3) it would be four years, but that would be the other change, but that’s based on the change in the federal legislation. I hope that’s a plain language explanation. Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
March 10th, 2014
Bob Bromley Weledeh
That was excellent. Thank you very much. Section 8, obviously, is a bit troubling in that anyone who is authorized to do something under GNWT legislation appears to be immune to any action under the Environmental Rights Act. This is not surprising given that we’ve had a recent inquiry and it was turned down under federal legislation with reference to federal legislation, but it seems pretty slippery. The intent of the Environmental Rights Act was for any citizens, to citizens in the Northwest Territories that have concerns, environmental concerns about a pollutant or a contaminant could bring that forward to the government. Now the government is saying, well, anything they permit, whether or not it’s a pollutant or contaminant, we can do it. Am I interpreting that correctly? Is this essentially doing the same thing as what existed before under what was covered under federal legislation and is now covered under GNWT legislation and, therefore, it’s impregnable? Thank you.
Committee Motion 40-17(5): Amendment To Clause 1 Of Bill 11, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters