The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

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

---Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that when the Government of the Northwest Territories is preparing complex bills of significant public interest, the government should coordinate with the appropriate standing committee on the introduction of such bills to allow the public and standing committees to adequately consider the implications of each bill.

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 Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think, if anyone wasn't convinced that there wasn't too much legislation before the House, they should have been here last night at midnight. We've heard from observers who have said this is an unprecedented amount of legislation to be introduced so late in an Assembly. I can speak for the personal stress that it's given me, my family, and my friends. This is not healthy. We're not making good laws for our people. We're not making the best possible laws, because of the amount of work that we've had to accomplish in a very, very short period of time. I think this could have been avoided, and it could have been managed a lot better and timed and paced in a way that would have ensured we could better fulfill our duties as MLAs and served the public.

This is a suggestion, a recommendation, in looking at the legislative workload that it be done in a more collaborative fashion to look at the capacity of committees and so on.

We raised these issues about the legislative workload continually in the last half of our mandate with Cabinet. We would get these legislative initiatives listing what laws or bills were likely to come forward, and we continually raised this as an issue, particularly from this standing committee, Economic Development and Environment, about the back-end loading of all of the legislation. It really has resulted in, I think, less than what our citizens deserve. Next Assembly, please do it differently and do it better. Thank you.

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

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

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

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

---Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.

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. Vanthuyne.

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I think this is a motion that speaks for itself, but one of the experiences that we had was sometimes we were receiving plain language rather late. In some instances it was right at the day of us conducting a public hearing. In some cases, depending on the bill, we would receive plain language that came in the form of one document, and that would be fine, but then, when we would take a different bill on the road, we had plain language material for that particular bill that came in the form of five or six pieces of documents. There were times when the plain language was not that plain and, quite frankly, was pretty technical in nature, and so we believe that a motion to this effect would be most effective in getting plain language material, call it more unified, for the benefit all of the committees and the public. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. To the motion.

The Chair Frederick Blake Jr.

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

--Carried

Mr. Vanthuyne.