Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to welcome the Minister and the department here this evening for I think a very important bill. One in which that I think drew a little bit of controversy and a little bit of concern when we did the clause-by-clause. I think it came down to the level of consultation that was undertaken to prepare the bill that we see today. As you heard this evening in the Minister’s comments, extensive consultations – his words – occurred September 2010 to March 2011, and to our knowledge, very little consultation took place in the drafting of this bill to match current regulations under the occupational health and safety matter.

So, first and foremost, as I indicated back in our clause by clause, I was going to give the Minister and his delegation appropriate time and energy to go and consult after the clause by clause and so at this time I will be asking the Minister or his designate whether or not they did get concurrence and approval from such areas as the Governance Council of the Workers’ Compensation Division, the Chamber of Commerce, both territorial and in Yellowknife, the Chamber of Mines and others that we talked about.

So, again, I will ask the Minister or designate, has this been fully consulted with these groups and have they been blessed to support the Safety Act? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Grundy.

I appreciate Mr. Grundy’s reply to the question. Why didn’t we go and consult our stakeholders in preparation for today’s amendments and bill? What was the impetus for not reaching out? Like I say, it has been a number of years since we took it upon ourselves to do this. What was the reason for not consulting these various stakeholders to which it will have an immediate and direct impact to small businesses throughout the Northwest Territories?

I appreciate the response; however, the department is very aware that regulations on the floor of the House here are something to which we, as legislators, have absolutely zero impact on. We can talk about them in the House; we can make inferences; we can make suggestions; but we have no control over regulations. We do, however, have control over legislation. So, when legislation is brought before the House, it is deemed appropriate that proper consultation pursue. That proper consultation was reached out to all stakeholders.

Clearly, what we are hearing today is still that we are trying to match an act to regulations that are out of our control and we are somehow supposed to understand and agree to these changes to the act in the absence of full consultation, which makes it very problematic in context. So it is very difficult for me to move forward with this act as a Member because we are kind of doing things a little backwards. We are matching legislation to regulations and in the absence of consultation, in the absence of not having all stakeholders provide input, these changes to the act will affect small businesses. In fact, those businesses of less than 20 are going to be affected greatly in terms of extra costs to maintain certain occupational health and safety standards, and those costs will affect the businesses that affect Northerners that affect their way of life.

What has the department done to evaluate what is the financial impact of this act on small businesses of less than 20 people?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Kainz.

Thank you, Ms. Kainz. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t want to continue with questioning too much longer here. I think we have heard loud and clear my concern the way this act has come about. It is unfortunate that I don’t have enough support from my colleagues here, otherwise I would have a motion to not pass this bill as written, for the very reasons of lack of consultation. However, since I don’t have enough support to do so, I am not going to belittle this process any further. I just hope that this serves as a deep reminder to the department, to Ministers, to make sure that you bring full consultation to this House, otherwise, as Members, we will remind you each and every time. You have to consult. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. I will take that as a general comment. Committee, we are on general comments. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions. I haven’t been party to the consideration of this bill, but in listening to the comments in the last few minutes, I heard Mr. Grundy say that there is a comprehensive review of the Safety Act being undertaken.

So, my first question is: Why do we have these amendments before us when the Safety Act is being reviewed, apparently now and in the near future? What is so urgent about these amendments that it couldn’t wait until the comprehensive review of the act? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Grundy.

Thank you, Mr. Grundy. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to Mr. Grundy for the explanation. My other two questions have to do with Section 4 in the act, but it states or uses the term “work site” and I don’t see that defined, certainly in this act. It may be defined elsewhere but it is not defined in these amendments.

To the concern that Mr. Dolynny expressed about small businesses being impacted, could I get a definition of what a work site is? I don’t know if it is in regulations already or if the department knows what they intend a work site to be. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. Kainz.

So, I guess that would then mean that any place where anyone is working, no matter what the size. I will take that, then, as a definition.

So the other part, I am looking at Section 4 again, and it says, “an Occupational Health and Safety Program or a work site as required by the regulations,” so can I get a confirmation? I heard you say these programs, these officers are required for businesses of more than 20 employees, so is that what is referenced here in number 7, that the regulations will make that statement so any work site that has less than 20 employees is not required to have an occupational health and safety committee, I guess, and a designated safety representative?

I think you got my question. What are the duties, I guess, of the safety representative in this small business of less than 20 employees? Mr. Dolynny is suggesting that it’s quite onerous. What is expected of this person? What’s in regulations that I, as a safety rep, am going to have to do at my workplace?

Thank you, Ms. Kainz. Committee, we’re on general comments for Bill 65. Does committee agree to go clause by clause?