Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chair, I move that consideration of Tabled Document 215-18(3), Capital Estimates, 2019-2020, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 215-18(3) be reported as ready for further consideration in the formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Committee, there is a motion in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions?

---Carried

Thank you, committee. The tabled document is now concluded. We will now turn to Bill 24. Does committee agree? Committee will now take a five-minute break just to reorganized. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

I call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act. I will now ask the Member responsible for the bill to introduce it. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As chair of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures, I am pleased to present Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act.

Bill 24 is the result of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures review of three reports submitted by the Chief Electoral Officer in the life of the 18^th Assembly. The first, entitled "Modernizing Election Administration in the Northwest Territories," was tabled by the Speaker on May 31, 2016, and reports on the conduct of the general election. The second report is a white paper on the independence and accountability of election administration in the Northwest Territories commissioned by the Chief Electoral Officer and tabled in the Legislative Assembly on February 28, 2017. The third report provides four supplementary recommendations on the administration of the 2015 general election. It was tabled on June 1, 2017. Together, these reports contain 107 recommendations for changes related to election administration, including legislative amendments.

The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures is responsible for reviewing these reports and for making recommendations to the Legislative Assembly. Because the Chief Electoral Officer's two reports and white paper are closely related, the committee carried out a coordinated and comprehensive review of all three documents, involving in-depth examination of each recommendation, and extensive public and stakeholder consultation. The standing committee notified former candidates, interested stakeholders, and the media prior to holding public hearings with the Chief Electoral Officer in Yellowknife on September 9, 2016, and June 12, 2017. Public submissions were received from two individuals, and additional submissions were sought from stakeholders and from the public via the standing committee's website after the white paper was tabled.

At the conclusion of this consultation and review process, the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures released its report on the review of the Chief Electoral Officer's three reports on October 17, 2017. The standing committee report was debated in Committee of the Whole on October 19, 2017, and this Assembly adopted each of the standing committee's 15 recommendations. Since that time, the law clerk and legislative drafters have been working to translate these recommendations for improvements to the Elections and Plebiscites Act into the amendments found in Bill 24.

The amendments were also reviewed and discussed by caucus by all MLAs earlier this month, where some additional minor changes were made. The overriding purpose of these amendments is to increase the opportunity for members of the public to participate in the democratic process in the Northwest Territories and to improve administration of elections. These amendments also allow for modernization of our electoral system. The most important changes include:

• fixing the election date to the first Tuesday in October;
• setting rules for third-party advertising;
• allowing greater flexibility and financial reporting by candidates;
• allowing absentee voters to vote electronically;
• clarifying the mandate of Elections NWT, including working with youth in schools;
• increasing penalties under the act;
• expanding the scope of annual reports by the chief electoral officer; and
• improving powers of investigation and enforcement.

Bill 24 recognizes the strength of our existing system, and builds on this strength to ensure our electoral process is modern, inclusive, and more accessible to all voters in the Northwest Territories. That concludes my opening remarks, Mr. Chair, and I'm prepared for any questions that Members may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Mr. O'Reilly, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two witnesses here with me today. Mr. Mike Reddy, the legislative drafter with the Department of Justice, is on my left, and I have Ms. Alyssa Holland, who is a law clerk, on my right-hand side. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 24. Any comments? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased today to speak to Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act. The bill provides for a series of changes that will offer much-needed flexibility and modernization of our system of elections in the NWT. I would like to acknowledge the work of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures in bringing forward these comprehensive changes to our elections legislation, along with recognizing the contributions of the Chief Electoral Officer, members of the public, and former candidates in their submissions to the review of the Elections Plebiscites Act. I will be supporting all clauses of the bills, and will have specific comments on some of these sections later today.

Mr. Chairman, now that I have addressed what is currently in the bill, I want to raise concerns about what isn't in the bill. For as long as I can remember, living and working in the NWT, there has been a constant tension in our political discourse of what system is best to represent the interests of Northerners; the status quo consensus model, or responsible government through organized political parties. Debates on the merits of both systems occur regularly during election cycles, and more frequently in response to political events that raise questions about accountability of executive power in our government, the ethical conduct of Members of the Legislative Assembly, and the pace of enacting legislation and providing clear direction towards public policy. These debates are important to a healthy democracy, and it's clear to me that there is public interest and desire for more options to be brought forward for consideration during elections.

Therefore, later during this review, I will be introducing a series of amendments that will allow for the registration and regulation of political parties in the Northwest Territories. My decision to bring forward these amendments to create formal rules for political parties in our Election Act is primarily based on the concerns brought forward to me by my constituents over the past three years, the concerns of my colleagues in this House, and my own reflections of my time in office.

The principle of these amendments is twofold; to clearly set out in law rights and responsibilities of territorial political parties, and further, to enhance the democratic rights of our citizens.

The honourable Members of this House have had the opportunity to discuss this matter privately behind closed doors, and while I acknowledge there has been little appetite to bring forward changes to the rules and procedures of the Legislative Assembly, I believe it is important to have a public debate on this matter to weigh all options for democratic reform in the Northwest Territories and to continue to challenge our assumptions around peace, order, and good government in the NWT.

The continuing confusion around the status of territorial political parties and the desire of many of our people to engage their democratic right to free association compels an examinations of the current state of our laws as it relates to territorial political parties.

Three statues, the Public Service Act, the Cooperative Associations Act, and the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, make explicit reference to political parties, and make certain prohibitions against these organizations.

Additionally, the GNWT's Code of Conduct establishes extensive prohibitions towards territorial political parties. These provisions exist in a legal gray area, as there is no current definition of a territorial political party in any of our laws. Federal parties are defined and regulated through the Canada Elections Act, and are well-understood by the provisions of our legislation practices and policies. The same is not true for territorial political parties.

The amendments I will introduce are designed to solve this problem by clearly defining the roles, rights, and responsibilities of territorial political parties by governing them through the Elections and Plebiscites Act, similarly to how political parties are regulated through federal, territorial, and provincial elections legislation in other jurisdictions. This will have the effect of assisting members of the public service in interpreting the Code of Conduct and the aforementioned laws to allow them to better understand their roles as public servants with respect to MLAs.

The current state of affairs often has GNWT employees muzzled with respect to matters of public policy, and a display of frequent unwillingness to engage with elected Members for fear of reprisal from their employer, the GNWT. This is not the intention of the Code of Conduct, nor is it appropriate to limit the rights of public servants without clearly defining those limits through law.

The second aspect of this proposal is the enhancement of the democratic rights of NWT residents. Setting aside personal feelings toward the concept of party politics, it is true, many of our citizens have expressed a desire to see more options given during elections including parties as a form of political expression. The proposed amendments can therefore be characterized as enhancing democratic rights as opposed to modifying or reducing democratic rights. The distinction is important as, if this were such a proposal, there would be a real need for consultation at minimum, if not an outright plebiscite.

However, these amendments are not proposing to change how people vote, how they run in elections, or how the legislature operates. These amendments do not directly change or alter the institutions of consensus government, nor do they serve as an endorsement of responsible government through political parties over the more familiar consensus-style government. Rather, these amendments seek to provide additional options to the electorate and more choice at the ballot box.

Voters will still be able to support consensus representation in their ridings, as long as a candidate runs presenting that option. Creating a legal framework for political parties does not mean the Legislative Assembly is abandoning consensus government. Arguments to the contrary presume the success of political parties during electoral contests, which is yet unknown, and it cannot be seen as a guaranteed outcome without any real evidence to support this assumption.

In speaking of support of additional changes to the bill to regulate political parties, I offer the commonly accepted international development standards for democratic legislatures that recognize the right of citizens to form political associations and freely participate in the democratic process. The conversations we have been having as a caucus concerning increasing the number of women in the Legislative Assembly to 30 percent is drawn from these same development goals and, as they relate to political parties, are not controversial in the rights they seek to advance and enshrine in free and open societies.

Mr. Chairman, I want to acknowledge plainly that changing the act to incorporate political parties carries with it no small amount of controversy, given the subject matter. I have taken personal steps to ensure that the public is aware of this proposal and communicated broadly with the media and the general public through online social media and direct communication with individual citizens.

While some Members may be concerned that this proposal has not been given over to the public for review, I would point out that all of the amendments brought forward in this bill have likewise not gone out for extensive public consultation. Only two public hearings have been held on this Chief Electoral Officer's territory election reports and white paper on electoral administrative independence, the last one nearly a year ago by the standing committee on June 7, 2017.

The recommendations made in this report were considered and later formed the basis of subsequent recommendations made by the committee in its October 17, 2017, report that was later adopted by the House. Apart from public debate in this Chamber on these recommendations, the proposed amendments we are considering today have not been subject to public consultation and review.

Mr. Chairman, the changes brought forward in Bill 24 are welcome, are much needed improvements to our election's administration in the NWT and will go a long way to enhance our democracy. However, the act does not go far enough to address a long-standing issue concerning political parties that is well known to all Members of this House and to the public in general.

The additional amendments I will be introducing in respect to the regulation and registration of political parties can be considered as technical or legal in nature to close the loopholes that exist in our current laws, responding to public interest and setting out rules for political parties, or to meet international standards of democratic legislature that ensure the rights of all citizens are upheld and properly defined in law.

I believe strongly we must act to address this issue for these reasons and use the current opportunity to amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act as a means to do so. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Any further questions, committee? Seeing none, is the committee agreed that there are no further comments?

Agreed? Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?

Agreed? Thank you. Does committee also agree that we will consider the clauses in groups of 10 except where we have motions in order? Does committee agree?

Agreed? Thank you. Committee, we will now differ the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 2 of the bill. [Microphone turned off]

Agreed? Clause 2?