Thank you, Mr. Brock. Mr. Hawkins, your time is now up. If you have any more questions, let me know. Committee, just to rekindle, we are on Bill 26 and we agreed to do in groups of five. I’ll commence again. Clauses 1 to 5.

---Clauses 1 through 45 inclusive approved

Does committee agree that Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscite Act, is now ready for third reading?

Bill 26 is now deemed ready for third reading.

---Bill 26 approved for third reading

I’d like to thank Mr. Bouchard, sponsoring from the Board of Management, and Mr. Brock and Mr. Chutskoff for joining us here today. Sergeant-at-Arms, if I can have you escort the witnesses out of the House.

Committee, as agreed upon earlier here this afternoon, we are going to now turn our attention to Committee Report 8-17(5), Standing Committee Report on Rules and Procedures on the Report on the Review of the Auxiliary Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on Issues Arising from the 2011 General Election. I’ll turn over to the chair of that committee to introduce it. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures has presented its Report on the Review of the Auxiliary Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on Issues Arising from the 2011 General Election.

The report contains 13 recommendations which, taken together, will help clarify, modernize and strengthen the NWT’s electoral system. These are important incremental changes to ensure the continued integrity and fairness of our elections.

The committee advises that these changes should be made in advance of the next election.

The committee thanks the Chief Electoral Officer for his diligence and everyone who provided public input or attended the committee’s hearings. I also have a number of motions.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll now open up the floor to general comments. I’m hearing detail. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to

increase the number of times an elector may vouch for another elector from one to five. This is in recognition in some of our communities where more than 50 percent of the residents eligible to vote do not have government issued identification.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I have a motion on the floor. It is not debatable. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to prohibit candidates from vouching for another elector.

The motion is on the floor. To the motion.

Question has been called. Motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that the Elections NWT and the Government of the Northwest Territories work together to expand the coverage of government issued photo identification among residents of the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. The motion is now carried.

---Carried

Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am very glad to see this here. I have found in the two elections that I have been involved in that it has been extremely confusing. It used to talk about broadcasting. This is now talking about advertising and all kinds of election advertising, so it’s going to make it much simpler. It will be clear that you don’t do anything in terms of your election on the voting day and the day prior. I’m very glad to see this amendment coming forward.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question to this is the amendment to this advertising on the day of polling, I guess, does that mean current advertising that has been in place has to be removed or is the addition of advertising and polling the day prior to or the day of?

We’re just speaking to the motion here, Mr. Bouchard. Does anyone from the committee wish to offer to the motion? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this, as Ms. Bisaro identified, clarifies the terminology under election advertising and tries to level the playing field. There are some forms of advertising that are active and can be deactivated, others that are print form that can’t, and so it clarifies under election advertising which of those categories it falls into.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to admit, I don’t recall the exact detailed discussion when we had it in committee, but one of the problems we had was recognizing advertisement in general. For example, it’s easy to say don’t advertise in print on that day, and that makes sense to people, or for example, don’t advertise on television, which in the Northwest Territories tends to be fortunate in that area. It’s too expensive and these are small campaigns so you don’t tend to see a lot of it, and that’s what I mean by fortunate.

On the radio now, we’re getting into means and mediums that people can afford and tend to advertise in, and I think that it’s things like that that make a lot of sense to people. However, now we’re engaged in social media and now it gets a little tricky, and so the challenge, of course, is how to balance this off. I think the intent here is – I do remember a fulsome discussion about it – if someone tweets a message advertising for a particular campaign and they are promoting them, if I recall, they may be in violation of it. So it’s a bit of a quirk on this particular case. Do you have to

deactivate your Facebook account? I think there are a lot of details still to be worked out. I would not think that this is probably enough information at this particular time. Thank you.