Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to welcome back Mr. Mike Reddy, director of legislation. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome back. I will now open the floor to general comments on bill 13. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say that, in the last Assembly, there was a petition on changing the time, and there was some support for it. I don't think it was overwhelming, but the whole matter was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development in the last Assembly, and they did some work on this issue. At the end of the day, their recommendation was that we keep ourselves on Daylight Saving Time so that we would be in sync with Alberta. The bill, though, that we got from Cabinet did not really do that. It gave Cabinet a blank cheque to change time zones, get rid of Daylight Saving Time, without bothering to talk to anybody, and quite frankly, I wasn't prepared to give Cabinet a blank cheque like that. I want to thank the committee for the amendment that was made to the bill. Look, I love my colleagues opposite me, but I don't give them a blank cheque for anything.

In any event, I want to thank the committee for bringing forward an amendment. I know I sat in on their discussion about it, and I suggested that there be an amendment to try to circumscribe that ability to change things. I can accept what's here and the work that the committee did on this issue, but I guess 5(2), the way this reads now, it says that there be "an opportunity for public engagement with residents regarding the elimination of the time change and the setting of standard time." What does that really mean? The importance of this kind of discussion and debate is that, if this ever goes for interpretation somewhere, the courts are going to look back at what we say in this House right now. I want to get on the record: what does the Minister mean when he says "public engagement" before a time change is going to be made? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to be clear, I wouldn't change the time all willy-nilly with this "blank cheque," as the Member calls it. It's not like I want to leave work early, so I'm going to change the time so now it's time to go home. The only prudent thing to do, really, is to ensure that we are aligned with Alberta. That being said, there is a requirement in this bill for some sort of a public consultation. I envision that as an email address that the public can send their concerns to. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I am sure the Minister is being rather facetious, but seriously, I want to know what kind of public engagement Cabinet would intend to do before making such a change. Are you going to give people a reasonable amount of notice? Thirty, 60 days? Are you going to publish the proposed change in newspapers, on a website somewhere, allow for comments to be submitted? Will there be a summary of those comments, and then some reasons for why the change is going to be made or not? That's the kind of reasonable approach that I would expect.

Let's cut the humour here, and let's get serious. I would like to get a serious answer from the Minister about what's really meant here by public engagement. The courts will look back at this when residents in the future may want to know what was meant by public engagement. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. This was something put forward by committee. In my mind, it's something quite limited, given that it would make very little sense for us to go off on our own and have a different time than Alberta. It wouldn't make sense, and I don't think the public would be appreciative if we did that. It would cause havoc for flights. It would cause havoc for all sorts of things.

I am serious that we would have some sort of website, an email address, a place where comments can be submitted. I don't plan to travel around the territory seeking engagement. Of course, there are going to be advertisements; that's something completely different from engagement. There is going to be notice given. There is going to be extensive notice given. Everyone is going to know that the time is changing. It's going to be the talk of the town, and I can promise that. There won't be the type of widespread engagement like there might be on large piece of legislation or something like that. This is just not where I think that our resources need to go. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member.

Thanks. I think that was a little more helpful. Look, I'm not suggesting that there has to be public hearings and all of that. For the actual time change, yes, there would obviously be notice, but I would expect that there would be notice or at least an opportunity for the public to express their views about whether we should change to Daylight Saving Time, be consistent with Alberta if they make that change, that kind of thing. I am not expecting a big road show, but to say that there's just going to be an email address, I don't think that quite cuts it in terms of public engagement. I'm not sure what else I have to say on this topic right now, Madam Chair, but I do hope that the Minister would take this kind of responsibility seriously. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand why we want to have this legislation in place, in order to be more flexible and quick to adapt should Alberta decide to make their change. Now, listening to the Minister, I'm a little bit confused when we do talk about engagement. I get that there are different levels of engagement and what that means, and not that I necessarily think that this scenario will occur, but what happens if the engagement shows the Minister that there is not a want to change how things are, and then Alberta does change, and all of a sudden, we are now sitting here out of sync with Alberta? My question is: is the intention that, as soon as Alberta changes, we will, too; we will be making our decision based on Alberta's decision? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a significant amount of research about the effects of Daylight Saving Time. There's anecdotal evidence about Daylight Saving Time. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone here say they like it. Barring some evidence that I can't foresee coming forward, I expect that we would be in sync with Alberta. The reason the legislation is as it is is because we want to be very nimble and not make the change anticipating that Alberta will make a change, and then Alberta doesn't make a change. That scenario has happened in other jurisdictions before, and we don't want that to happen. If there's public consultation, and they say they want to change it before Alberta changes, then perhaps that's something that we can look at, as well, but I can't imagine that we would be too far off of our neighbours to the south. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do appreciate that. I am just trying to raise a scenario that needs to be considered. However, I am in favour of getting rid of it, but I understand why we need to be in line with Alberta, as someone who has always worked in small satellite offices where, generally, I am linked to the Edmonton office. I couldn't imagine being an hour out, which would then, basically, just mean I end up working an extra hour every day because I would have to make myself available earlier for them or later.

I do want to urge the Minister, and I'm sure they are, but I just would be remiss if I didn't bring it up: there is a school of thought about which way to go with the time change, as far as what's healthier for us as Canadians with our lack of sunlight. I just wanted to make sure that got on the record somewhere that that be considered because I believe there was one jurisdiction that actually was looking at doing it the opposite way from what healthcare professionals were recommending. I do want to make that statement. I do support that, just wanting to make sure that the Minister is looking at all the angles. Thanks.

Thank you. Minister, did you have any comments?

I think that, for those of us who reside in the southern part of the territory, this is a more live debate than maybe some of or northern colleagues, where it's either always dark or it's always sunny. I take the Member's comments, and I take all the comments here seriously. I do appreciate the feedback that we are getting. That's why we have these debates. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just wondering why we are dealing with this issue when we don't even know if Alberta is going to be aligning with us. Until they align with us, why are we doing this? Why are we even putting this on the books? I don't understand the priorities, but it certainly isn't my priority. The engagement part is really important, and engagement is face-to-face because a lot of people probably would not be in favour of something like this if Alberta is not on the same page as we are. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. If Alberta is not on the same page, I wouldn't be in favour of it, either. The reason that we are doing this now is because we don't want to be in a scenario where we are told in the middle of summer that Alberta is getting rid of their Daylight Saving Time and we don't have the ability to be responsive and now we are out of sync for however long it takes to get a legislative proposal together, send it to the committee, get it back from the committee, draft legislation, bring it to the House, give the committee 120 days to look at it, bring it back to a sitting, and then go from there. We could be six months behind, and it just seems needless. It's a relatively low-effort bill to draft. I'm not demeaning what Mr. Reddy has done, he's a miracle worker, but I think that it didn't take a lot of resources, and it'll save us a lot in the long run. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.