This is page numbers 6091 - 6124 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was environmental.

Topics

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Agreed. Thank you, committee. We will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. There are 25 clauses in the bill. We will consider the clauses in groups. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. Clauses 1 to 5, does committee agree?

---Clauses 1 through 38 inclusive approved

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

We will now return to the bill number and title. Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers Compensation Act. Does committee agree?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Agreed, thank you. Does committee agree that Bill 25 is now ready for third reading?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Agreed, thank you. Bill 25 is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 25?

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister Moses, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Minister Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to reiterate some of the comments that were made by committee when we just passed the committee report. I know it was last-minute that we did have to make some changes to the legislation, and when we do legislation that's cross-jurisdictional, such as with Nunavut, as one of the Members had mentioned earlier, we do have to come up with a protocol and process when we look at it, working with Nunavut especially because we have a lot of legislation that we have done with them in the past. I would like to thank the Members and the staff for the work that they have done getting to this point in our legislation as we near the end of the 18th Legislative Assembly.

Once again, I would like to thank Kim for stepping up and being the acting president for WSCC in the last little while here, and if I can just let Members know, up in the gallery, we do have our newly I wouldn't say "elected" but our new president, Debbie Malloy, if you wouldn't mind raising your hand. Welcome to the Northwest Territories and working with us at WSCC, along with Elise Scott, our senior advisor for the president's office, and I look forward to the work that you will be doing with our staff moving forward. With that, I just want to thank committee again and the staff for adjusting issues that needed to be adjusted, and moving into the next government, I do believe there needs to be a protocol and a process when we're looking at a legislation that affects across jurisdictions. With that, thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister Moses, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

Thank you, committee. Committee Report 27-18(3), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Review of Bill 39, Environmental Rights Act. I will go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for any opening comments. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any opening comments at this point. I did share some brief comments when I announced the report to Committee of the Whole the other day. I will leave it to other Members if they have any opening comments at this point in time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Any further questions from committee? Mr. O'Reilly.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. First off, I have a confession to make. I am passionate about this bill. This is the first time that the Environmental Rights Act has been through a review in 29 years. There have only been four requests under the act. It is not very well used; I don't think it's terribly well promoted. Of the four requests, there has only ever been one investigation carried out. I helped make that request with a friend, Chris O'Brien, about emissions from the Giant Mine.

Because this area of environmental rights is evolving over time, and certainly a number of other jurisdictions have adopted environmental rights right into the constitution, 149 of 193 countries have done that. Unfortunately, the bill that we have before us is really only making some minor improvements to what we have in place.

I will say that it does extend the basis for investigations, court actions, to acts of omissions, but there is now a significant harm test. You have to show that something has significant effects on the environment before an investigation or a court action might be permitted. There is to be a State of the Environment Report and a statement of environmental values. Those are improvements, but it's not a rights-based or obligation-based approach.

This really doesn't even deliver on the promises that were made by the department during the public consultations. What was promised were things like an environmental registry, a method for the public to propose policies, programs, agreements, initiatives, and a period for public comment on these things, and in some cases, even a response from the department. There was to be a definition of the right to a healthy environment, public trust was to be defined, and an obligation placed on our government to basically take care of the environment. There is to be dispute resolution incorporated into the bill, and investigations would initially be carried out by inspectors.

There was a lot more promise than what has been delivered in the bill. Committee did look at this and tried to find some ways to make some improvements in areas that we could, and I am pleased to say that most of the recommendations from committee have been incorporated into the bill. Those do include things like how to better define some criteria that can be considered in terms of defining significance, some principles that can help the Executive Council in drafting the statement of environmental values. These are well-accepted environmental principles. The statement of environmental values is to go through a public review now, similar to that that was can contemplated for the state of the environment reports. There have been some improvements made to the bill. There are still some areas that I would recommend some further improvements on.

Although they didn't receive committee support, I brought them to the floor of the House. I also indicated my willingness to work with the Minister and the department on further improvements, and I look forward to discussing those a little later when we get to the bill itself, Mr. Chair. I think that it is important for the public to know that we did receive significant amount of public concerns, submissions around how to improve this, and committee has done its best to try to do that within the scope of the bill that is before us. I look forward to further opportunities to improve this bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Any further questions, committee? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have some motions. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources undertake a public awareness campaign of the Environmental Rights Act, including plain language materials on how the public can avail themselves of the various protections and provisions of the act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. The motion is on the floor and is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Earlier in my opening comments, I mentioned that this is not a terribly well-used piece of legislation: four requests in 29 years, only one of which resulted in an investigation. I think that it is important that we give citizens tools to help protect the environment. This bill will help improve that, but we also have to do, I think, a much better job in communicating what sort of rights citizens have under the Environmental Rights Act and promote those rights and how people can follow up on them, whether it's requests for investigations, taking action themselves through the court system.

There are a number of things that people can do and follow up. They can be engaged and involved in the preparation of the statement of environmental values, review the State of the Environment Report. Hopefully, at some point in the future, we may have an environmental registry. This motion will ensure that the department, hopefully, will take a stronger role in promoting what is in the bill and the environmental rights that it creates so that people can exercise those rights. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

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

---Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that a registry be created to capture all of the reporting requirements found in the various environment and resource management bills, allowing the public a one-window access point to information. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. The motion is on the floor and has been distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I mentioned earlier how the department, in carrying out the public consultations that went into the development of the bill, had said that they were contemplating the development of an environmental registry.

Ontario has such as registry already in place, and has had it in place for more than a decade. This is one place on the Ontario government website where any individual can go and find important decisions that are made with regard to the environment; proposals for policies, programs, new regulations, draft regulations; and there is an opportunity for the public to comment on these, so we already have a model or a system that works in another jurisdiction. Apparently, the department heard some concerns about duplication with the Land and Water Board registries or the review board public registry. That is not what I think this contemplates. Those registries do a great job of informing people of decision-making proceedings under the Mackenzie Valley Resources Management Act.

What we are talking about is areas of GNWT jurisdiction, things like the Forest Act or the Environmental Protection Act, where GNWT has specific authority and makes decisions, issues permits and so on. That is where these things could be located because right now there is not much access to some of that information, although, through committee's development review of a number of the resource management bills, there will now be registries for mining, for public lands. All of those could be combined and put into an environmental registry, providing some greater coordination and maybe even some cost savings. That is what the purpose of this is, to ask the department to further consider this idea of an environmental registry and how to allow our citizens to have more information about important decisions made about the environment and maybe even a chance to comment on decisions before they are made or drafts of things before the decisions are made. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. To the motion.