Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 74, Forest Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 2nd, 2023, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for a review.
The review period for Bill 74 was extended to 180 days rather than the 120 so the committee could proceed with a thorough review of the first co-drafted legislation of the Northwest Territories. Indigenous governments co-management bodies. The Government of the Northwest Territories worked together to create Bill 74. The bill was the first piece of legislation to be reviewed under the process convention of the introduction, consideration, and enactment of bills drafted pursuant to the Intergovernmental Council Legislative Development Protocol.
Bill 74 is a second attempt at this legislation that did not pass in the 18th Assembly. It was important for this committee to be thorough in its review to ensure people had their voices heard when they weighed in on this bill. The committee held public hearings in Yellowknife, Whati, Fort Simpson, Enterprise. The committee also received six written submissions. This enabled the committee to get a solid understanding on how the intricacies of the proposed forest management legislation would impact communities, individuals, businesses, and non-governmental organizations.
The committee developed 37 motions to amend the bill and brought them forward for the consideration of the technical working group comprised of the Government of the Northwest Territories and representatives from the Indigenous governments.
The committee held many negotiation sessions with the purpose of seeing where the technical working group stood on the issues and why, and to have the opportunity to do the same.
On August 11th, 2023, the committee held a historic clause-by-clause review of Bill 74 with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and representatives of the technical working group. The committee moved 28 motions to amend Bill 74. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change concurred with 22 of those motions. It is committee's belief that Bill 74, as amended, is an even stronger and even more representative piece of our legislation.
I would like to thank the committee -- the best committee in the whole Legislative Assembly -- of economic development and environment, for its hard work and my co-chair Mr. Ron Bonnetrouge for all the hard work he's done with me. And I thank him and the rest of the committee.
The review of Bill 74, as well as the work of the legal experts and the committee staff to comply with the tight deadlines outlined in the process convention and guided the review of this bill.
Individual Members may have additional comments or questions, Madam Chair. Thank you.