Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Bill 49, An Act to Amend the Deh Cho Bridge Act has had second reading.

---Carried

Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 12, Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act; Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act; Committee Report

10-17(5), Standing Committee on

Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories; Committee Report 11-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of Bill 12: Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act; Committee Report 12-17(5), Standing Committee on Social Programs Report on the Review of Bill 36: Health and Social Services Professions Act; and

Committee Report

13-17(5), Report of the Standing Committee on Social Programs on the Review of Bill 42: An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act,

with Mrs.

Groenewegen in the chair.

By the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 10-17(5), I here authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider business before the House.

I’d like to

call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mrs. Chair. We wish to deal with Bill 12; Committee Report 11-17(5), which deals with Bill 12; Bill 36; Committee Report 12-17(5), which deals with Bill 36; and, time and energy permitting, Committee Report 10-17(5). Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We’ll take a brief break and commence after that.

---SHORT RECESS

I’ll call Committee of

the Whole back to order. Committee, we’ll start with consideration of Committee Report 11-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on Review of Bill 12, Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act. First I’ll go to the chair responsible for the Standing Committee on Government Operations, Mr. Nadli, for a few comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Government Operations has been considering Bill 12, Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act. Members will recall that a substantive report on

the committee’s review of

Bill 12 was presented to the Legislative Assembly on March 5, 2015. By motion, the House received the report and it was moved into Committee of the Whole for further consideration.

Bill 12 sets out the legislative framework for Northern Employee Benefits Services, NEBS, Pension Plan to continue as a multi-employer, multi-jurisdictional public sector pension plan for employees of approved public sector employers in both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Because NEBS Pension Plan operates in both Northwest

Territories

and

Nunavut,

the

circumstances of its review are rather unique. At the same time we are conducting our review, our counterpart in Nunavut, the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut’s Standing Committee on Legislation, is conducting a concurrent review of Bill 1. Bills 1 and 12 are basically identical statutes and both are required for NEBS to require business in two separate jurisdictions.

Over the course of the winter, the standing committee worked closely with the Minister of Finance, Minister Miltenberger, and with the Standing Committee on Legislation with the Nunavut Legislative Assembly on amendments to improve Bill 12. These amendments were promoted by public input received on Bill 12 when the Standing Committee on Government Operations conducted a public review on September 25, 2014.

The standing committee would, once again, like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the review of Bill 12. This collaboration exemplifies participatory democracy in action and has, in the view of the standing committee, produced an act that fairly balances the needs of all stakeholders.

A clause-by-clause review of Bill 12 was held on February 19, 2015. Following the

committee’s

review, a motion was carried to report Bill 12 as amended and reprinted to the Assembly as ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.

Mr. Chair, this concludes the committee’s comments on CR 11-17(5) and Bill 12. Individual Members may have individual questions or comments as we proceed. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. I will just remind the general public to turn off their cell phones and other electronic devices.

I’ll open the floor to general comments on the committee report. General comments? Does committee

agree

that

we

have

concluded

consideration of Committee Report 11-17(5)?

I’ll turn to

consideration of Bill 12: Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act. I will go to the Minister responsible. Minister Miltenberger, do you have opening comments?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am here to present Bill 12, Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act, which is legislation that was identified as a priority in the 17th Legislative Assembly.

The Northern Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan, or NEBS, is a defined benefit plan similar to the one Government of the Northwest Territories employees have designed for public sector and non-profit employees working throughout the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

There are 42 NWT employers now active in the plan supporting their staff to make retirement plans that will meet their needs. In the NWT there are 712 active members, 320 deferred members and 143 pensioners in the NEBS Pension Plan.

Bill 12 is a result of a unique collaborative effort between the government, the Government of Nunavut and NEBS. This legislation is required to address the absence of an existing legislative framework to guide the NEBS Pension Plan as it currently operates and also to provide stability and structure for the pension plan.

Bill 12 supports the 17th Legislative Assembly vision

of strong individuals, families and communities sharing the benefits and responsibilities of a unified, environmentally

sustainable

and

prosperous

Northwest Territories. I believe that this bill is

evidence of a strong, independent North built on collaborative partnerships in an environment intended to sustain present and future generations.

I appreciate the efforts of the respective standing committees in each jurisdiction in working with the governments and NEBS in order to find ways to improve the legislation which resulted in the reprinted bill before us today.

This bill is essential in that it provides a framework of shared responsibility for retirement planning that supports residents not covered by other existing pension plans that work in the public sector. It will enable NEBS to work with northern communities and non-profit organizations to provide their workforce with benefits, opportunities and choices they might not otherwise be able to obtain or possibly even afford.

In short, this bill will be beneficial to Northwest Territories residents.

That concludes my opening remarks.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Do you have witnesses to bring into the Chamber?

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Does committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort in the witnesses.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Could you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister of Finance, Mike Aumond; the director of the Management Board Secretariat, Jamie Koe; and Ken Chutskoff, legislative counsel from the Department of Justice.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Committee, we’ve already heard from the committee chair. We’ll go directly into the clause-by-clause review of Bill 12. Any general comments? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I also would like to commend committee and the Minister on all the work done on this bill. I think it has come a long ways from when we first saw it, and I think a lot of people were startled about the amount of consultation with the people being affected that had been done and the shortcomings in that process. I’m sure we’ve all learned from that and that we can’t expect any entity to speak for the people other than the people themselves when we go out and do our consultations. I think that’s a lesson learned in this. Had we been more thorough on that front, I don’t think we would have needed to have put near

the process into amending this bill as was engendered here, but I’m happy with the way things are going.

I did have one question. The Minister mentioned 42 NWT employers now active in the plan. Do all of these employers provide 50 percent of the pension plan or less and expect the employees to provide the other 50 percent or more? My impression was in the past we have had employers who provided more than 50 percent. I know certainly the GNWT, which is not a member of this plan, which I suppose could be but it’s not, and they have had periods in history when they provided more than 50 percent, for example. Are any of these 42 NWT employers in the plan now providing more than 50 percent of the contributions for the pension plans?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.