Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Housekeeping recommendations

The committee agrees with a number of recommendations made by the CEO for the sake of efficiency and clarity of processes. These include such matters as voting compartments, materials, multi-district polling officers, multi-district ballots, advance polls by community, and various others.

Recommendation 8

The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures recommends that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended in accord with Recommendations 2, 10, 13, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, and 38 in the CEO Report on the Administration of the 2015 Territorial General Election.

Mr. Wasylciw suggested that nomination packages for candidates should be available for review before the writ is dropped. This would allow potential candidates to study the packages and identify questions or concerns before the election period begins. The committee agrees. The act does not establish when nomination forms are to be released. Forms are updated from time to time, as they were in 2015. It does not appear that a change of the act is necessary for Elections NWT to implement this.

In addition, the committee agrees with several of Mr. Wasylciw's housekeeping recommendations:

1. Eliminate duplication of information required in forms for financial reporting by candidates/official agents;

2. Investigate the possibility of issuing electronic tax receipts for campaign contributions;

3. Restore the categorization of campaign expenses used on financial information forms in previous elections;

4. Information for residents sworn in at the polls should be entered into the digital record system so it is immediately available, rather than on paper;

5. There must be opportunity for candidates or their designates to scrutinize the count of all ballots, including advance polls;

6. Elections NWT should consider providing open sessions for potential candidates and/or official agents in between elections to provide general information about the process and inform them about changes to the act; and

7. Elections NWT should solicit input from candidates and agents directly before preparing the CEO's post-election report.

These measures can be implemented by Elections NWT without changes to the act.

Review of the Chief Electoral Officer's Supplementary Recommendations on the Administration of the 2015 General Election

The CEO provided four additional recommendations to the Assembly on June 1, 2017. One was to remove the requirement in the act to establish bank accounts for campaign contributions. This issue is addressed in the committee's Recommendation 6, already discussed.

Third party certification of candidates' financial reports

The CEO's proposal to require that candidates' financial reports be certified by a qualified third party is not an acceptable solution to the problem of incomplete and inaccurate reporting. Accountants and auditors are even scarcer in small communities than financial institutions. Neither is the committee convinced that the proposal to subsidize candidates' costs for certification of statements would be effective and efficient.

Non-compliance penalty

The committee agrees that the current $250 penalty is not a meaningful deterrent for failure to file financial reports, and that the cost of enforcement is typically much greater than the penalty. Raising the penalty to $5,000 or $10,000 as proposed, matching British Columbia's, seems unduly harsh and likely to result in some large, uncollected fines. Committee Members propose increasing the penalty to $500, with additional daily fines to a maximum of $1,000.

Returning officer appointments

Experienced returning officers are a key factor in conducting NWT elections and they are a great resource to our electoral system. The committee shares the CEO's opinion that there is little logic in reappointing veteran returning officers for each election, and notes that three provinces and the Yukon appoint returning officers for life. Revocation provisions in the act already ensure that returning officers can be removed when necessary.

Recommendation 9

The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures recommends that section 257.1(1) of the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to increase the penalty for non-compliance to $500, plus a daily fine of $50 to a maximum of $1,000; and that the act be amended to establish that the term of office for returning officers expires with resignation, change of permanent residency to outside the Northwest Territories, revocation, or death.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this point, I would like to turn it over to the honourable Member from Thebacha.