This is page numbers 6125 - 6186 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 land.

Topics

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6169

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you, committee. Bill 43, as amended, is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree this concludes our consideration of Bill 43?

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6169

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6169

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you, committee. Thank you to the witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, you may escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Committee, we have agreed to next consider Committee Report 31-18(3), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, Report on the Review of Bill 46: Public Land Act. I will turn to the chair of the standing committee for any opening comments he may have. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6170

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just some general comments. Bill 46 was referred to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment on March 12, 2019.

The committee sent letters inviting input from an exhaustive list of stakeholders, including municipal and Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories, as well as a number of non-governmental organizations and stakeholders.

The committee travelled throughout the territory holding public hearings in Fort Smith, K'atlodeeche First Nation, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Fort Providence, Yellowknife, and Inuvik. The committee thanks everyone who attended these meetings or provided written submissions sharing their views on Bill 46.

The committee concluded its review of Bill 46: Public Lands Act on August 14, 2019, with a public clause-by-clause review held at the Legislative Assembly building. The committee passed 16 motions to amend Bill 46, of which 14 received concurrence from the Minister. The committee thanks Minister Sebert and his officials for their collaboration in the development of those motions.

Later, Mr. Chair, I will have committee motions regarding recommendations at the appropriate time. Individual Members may have additional comments or questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6170

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. I will open the floor to general comments on the report on Bill 46. The report is not the bill. We will have a chance to discuss the bill. Are there general comments on the report itself and the topics covered therein? Mr. O'Reilly.

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6170

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know we are all under a lot of pressure to get this legislative backlog cleared out of here, but this is the first time I have actually seen the final report. It is the first time our colleagues in the House have seen this final report. To have it tabled or given to us earlier in the day and then expect us to actually review and debate it the same day, I just don't think this is a very good practice. I did not exercise my right to nay the unanimous consent; I could have. I just don't think this is good practice to do this, but I think it is symptomatic of the amount of work that Cabinet has forced on Regular MLAs with these bills. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Committee Motion 198-18(3): Bill 43: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act - Add New Clause 3.6, Carried
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

Page 6170

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Further to the report itself? Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Minister direct the Department of Lands to develop a Land Use Sustainability Framework implementation plan that more fully incorporates the principles guiding the department's mandate as set out in the Department of Lands establishment policy; further, this plan should clearly identify actions and associated timelines required to implement the Public Land Act, including the need for further legislative change; furthermore, it should also clearly and publicly articulate how the department's guiding principles and those in the Land Use Sustainability Framework will inform land-administration decisions; furthermore, that this work be prioritized at the start of the 19th Legislative Assembly such that it can guide the development of a process for engaging key stakeholders regarding the continued evolution of public land administration in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. There is a motion on the floor. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. This recommendation really speaks to a number of the problems that committee identified with the bill. The consultation process that the department went through in developing the bill was really about amending the Commissioner's Land Act and the Northwest Territories Land Act. Then, all of a sudden, out of thin air comes an act or a bill prepared by the Minister and his staff that amalgamated the two systems without any warning to committee or to the public about doing that very thing.

Committee also heard from Indigenous governments that they did not have the opportunity to review the bill or that this was not a co-development process for the bill before us, unlike some of the other resource management environmental legislation that we have dealt with over the last week and a bit. This sort of stands out in contrast to some of those other pieces of legislation.

I think the last thing that I will say about this is that there is no preamble. There was no purpose statement in the original bill, even though the department has a Land Use Sustainability Framework that it has developed over a period of time. There didn't seem to be any efforts to actually incorporate that or the department's establishment policy that sets out a number of principles around sustainability and effectiveness and efficiency and all those sorts of great things. None of those were incorporated into the bill despite a mandate commitment on the part of the department that they would find ways to develop systems or places where the Land Use Sustainability Framework would actually be implemented in one form or another.

This is a bill that arrived out of thin air without any kind of purpose and required a lot of work on the part of committee to try to bring it to where it could be. I think we were partially successful. You will see a number of recommendations here about trying to encourage the department, moving forward, to do things in a more collaborative fashion. I think that is really what is at the base of this recommendation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. To the motion. I will put the question to committee. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that future amendments to the Public Land Act include more robust protections for Aboriginal and treaty rights consistent with and improving upon those found in other devolution-related statutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would suggest that Members have a look at the discussion leading up to this recommendation in the report now that it is before you. What committee observed was various approaches to trying to incorporate this idea of Indigenous rights into various bills. I guess the Public Land Act showed the minimum work with just a non-derogation clause, whereas some of the other bills actually tried to incorporate aspects of co-management or at least referenced land-rights agreements in their definitions or in the text of the bill itself.

This is trying to encourage Cabinet to develop a more consistent approach to recognizing and incorporating Indigenous rights and land-rights agreements and so on into statutes before they land here in the House because there doesn't seem to have been much consistency in the approach that was brought forward. This bill was the least successful in accomplishing that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the GNWT begin a phase 2 process of consultation on further amendments to the Public Land Act to be completed during the 19th Legislative Assembly that adequately addresses the concerns raised by municipalities and Indigenous governments and organizations, IGOs, in the review of Bill 46 and which find practical and meaningful ways, including co-management arrangements with IGOs to integrate these key stakeholders into the public land administration decision-making process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Once again, I would turn to the work that committee has done to point out that committee received numerous submissions, representations from community governments, including the Town of Fort Smith, Town of Hay River, City of Yellowknife, representatives from the Town of Inuvik, the mayor in Enterprise, the Northwest Territories Association of Communities, all raising a litany of issues in trying to secure and manage lands within their boundaries.

We heard about the difficulties of acquiring additional Commissioner's lands within municipal boundaries; issues around control and ownership of public land within municipal boundaries where land was being sold, transferred, or used willy-nilly without any notice to community governments; difficulties in getting adjustments to municipal boundaries; land withdrawal issues. What we heard was that, often, community governments would apply or request changes to boundaries, additional lands within their boundaries to meet municipal purposes, and they would just never get responses back.

I think that I would refine the recommendation a little bit myself to indicate that there needs to be a clear policy framework around how municipal governments, community governments, can request land, with deadlines, the need for written reasons if their requests are rejected, and to provide some certainty to our community governments, so that they can manage and acquire lands within their boundaries to allow them to grow and prosper, because our current system is not working.

The purpose of this recommendation is to attempt to get the Department of Lands to approach this in a more consistent manner and develop a policy framework to try to deal with some of these issues and assist our community governments in the growth and land management that they really desire and need to better serve their citizens. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

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

---Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for committee's information, what might have been in the people's package as the last one, I am moving that up to the next one. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Lands make a commitment to amend the regulations flowing from the Public Land Act in meaningful consultation with interested Indigenous governments and organizations and the general public in accordance with the timeline set out in the Land Use and Sustainability Framework implementation plan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair

The Chair R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. It looks like the motion is being distributed. The motion has been distributed. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.