All in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

Are there further comments on the “Community Wellness and Safety” section? Seeing none. We will continue onto the “Governance” section. Comments or questions. Mr. Testart.

Mr. Chair, I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), the Proposed Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, 2016-2019 be amended on page 32 by deleting the words, “We will do a better job of making our residents aware of the mechanisms available to appeal government decisions,” and inserting the words, “We will develop and implement an effective communications plan to make residents aware of the mechanisms of available to appeal government decisions.”

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. A motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll keep my comments brief. This is an improvement to the original text that gives more certainty to what the government intends to do with doing a better job. The committee felt that it was vague and wanted to improve in the language. By developing and implementing an effective communications plan that gives certainty to people reading this document about what we're going to do and it gives reasonable expectations to the committee and to the government moving forward of how we will make mechanisms of appeal better available to our residents and clearly explain what that process entails.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. The motion is in order.

Question has been called. I will allow Mr. Testart to conclude debate on the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I encourage all Members to support this motion. Thank you.

All in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried. ---Carried

Continuing on. Comments or questions? Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, 2016-2019 be amended on page 32 by inserting the following words under the, quote “Increasing Transparency and Accountability in Strength in the Consensus Government” section. “We will develop legislation within two years to establish an independent parliamentary office of the ombudsman.”

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. A motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This work in terms of the ombudsman has been something that the 17th Assembly had committed to work on, and I understand being part of the Government Operations committee at that time lots of work was committed in terms of ensuring the study of the concept of an ombudsman. A lot of research and background work was done. I'm quite pleased to ensure that this process continues to move forward. With the recent election that we've experienced, it was very clear that the public is demanding transparency in how we do the business of public government on behalf of the residents of the NWT. At the same time, ensuring that we have mechanisms and principles of ensuring you know we would hold ourselves accountable to the public as well. This motion essentially is going to look at developing legislation. I understand through that process there will be a public consultation and public input will be sought. It's a process that I think this motion seeks to undertake and I support that. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just a few comments. You know, the motion speaks to establishing legislation within the next two years for the ombudsman and you know I hope we're not setting ourselves up for failure with a lot of the changes we're making to the mandate. A lot of the intention means well, but we have to realize a lot of this is going to cost money and in our current situation here, you know, it's going to be challenging for us to fulfill our mandate. A lot of it we won't be able to fulfill because of our current situation unless things turn around. It's just something I've been thinking about over the last couple days here, a lot of good positive changes and I hope we can achieve some of our goals here. I just wanted to state that, because in previous information that we looked up on ombudsman, it would cost between $300,000 and close to $1 million to have this office set up. We've got to keep that in mind as we move forward. I know we all have the best intentions here, but some of this may not be possible through this Assembly and we just have to keep that in mind. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. To the motion.

Question has been called. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Past experience suggests that the development of a legislation this size and complexity of an Ombudsman Act would require four more years in the drafting of the initial legislative proposal through to the passage of a bill. The full cost of the bill’s development is difficult to estimate but the ongoing costs of operating an ombudsman office have been estimated to be in excess of $500,000 annually. An ombudsman office will not by itself replace or eliminate any of the many dozens of statutory appeal processes or officers already established in legislation and programs. An ombudsman's primary role is not to hear initial subject-specific complaints from the public. Rather, the ombudsman is an overseer of administrative fairness who considers the impartial and objective nature in which duly filed appeals were heard and decided. Given the breadth of our current statutory appeals processes and the costs associated with an ombudsman office, the government does not see the establishment of the empowering legislation as a priority.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. To the motion. Question has been called. I will allow Mr. Nadli to conclude debate on the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As I pointed out earlier, it was very clear from the recent election that the public very vocally expressed a need for change, and one of them was that this government has to act in a very transparent manner. We heard that very loud and clear with the expression of 11 new candidates that were elected to the Legislature here. In my mind, the motion does not commit any dollars. It essentially puts forth the work to ensure that at least the legislative framework would be detailed out and the public process to ensure that the public does have input in terms of understanding how this concept of the ombudsman would work. At the same time, there has been some errors in terms of making this work. It's not totally committing at least half a million dollars to one position. I think there's been some suggestions of workable scenarios. I think perhaps we need to consider those scenarios within you know the statutory offices that we have within the Legislative Assembly and we could make it work. For those reasons, I stand in support of this and encourage my colleagues to also support this motion. Mr. Chair, I also seek a recorded vote. Mahsi.

A recorded vote has been requested. Thank you, Mr. Nadli. All those in favour please stand.

All those opposed please stand.