Committee, we will defer the bill number and title under the consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. Clauses 1, does committee agree?

---Causes 1 through 3 inclusive approved

To the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act is now ready for third reading?

Thank you, committee. Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act, is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Corrections Act?

Thank you, Minister, and our thanks to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act. I will ask the Minister of Justice to introduce the bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight for their review and to Members for supporting the expedited consideration of this bill. The purpose of Bill 18 is to remove the requirement that an applicant for admission as a member of the NWT Law Society must be physically present in the NWT to take and sign the oath or affirmation before a judge that is required before engaging in the practice of law in the NWT.

This amendment is expected to remove unnecessary costs to lawyers associated with the current requirement and to increase the pool of lawyers that can be accessed to provide services in the Northwest Territories. This issue was raised by the law society, which has indicated its support of the bill. This concludes my opening remarks, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 18. Thank you.

Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Yes, please.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, we have Mr. Mike Reddy, director of legislation. [Microphone turned off]

I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 18. Would the Minister please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you. Perhaps we could have the witnesses introduce themselves.

Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 18. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am going to keep this pretty short. This and the previous bill got moved into committee vote because I think they are largely non-controversial changes. On this one, it would be my preference that this issue of having lawyers getting restricted appearance certificates if this new process was just during the pandemic, but I understand that the profession wants this done on a permanent basis. I am not going to stand in the way of that, but it is kind of unusual that we move these straight into Committee of the Whole. Given that it's, as I said, non-controversial and I think there is some other important business that we need to deal with, I am fine having an expedited review and support this bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. First, I want to apologize to Mr. Patzer, whose name escaped me. He is probably the first person in the Department of Justice that I met, about six years ago, so my apologies on that one. This bill, it's also important because we are in a situation where, for a lawyer to come up to the territory, they would have to self-isolate for two weeks. We are in a situation where there is a backup of cases, and we need this service. I thank the committee for working with the department to move this along. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Does the committee agree that there are no further general comments?

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

Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.

---Clauses 1 and 2 inclusive approved