Debates of Oct. 20th, 2025

Thank you, committee. Does the committee agree that this concludes the consideration of Bill 21, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act?

Thank you, Minister, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses from the chamber. Thank you.

Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 22, Legislation Act. I will ask the Minister of Justice to introduce the bill.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here today to present Bill 22, Legislation Act. The purpose of Bill 22 is to replace the Statutory Instruments Act with a more modern Legislation Act that clearly sets out the territorial regulation-making process, as well as provisions related to the making of statutes. This is in line with trends across the country to replace this type of legislation with more modernized Acts.

The territorial approach to oversight of the regulation-making process dates from 1971 and has remained largely unchanged. The definition of statutory instrument used in the current Statutory Instruments Act is considered one of the most complex definitions in statute law and is difficult to apply. The definition of regulation in that Act has also created confusion in the past.

In addition to replacing the Statutory Instruments Act, the bill will replace the Public Printing Act with the Territorial Printer Act that aligns with current practices, repeal the Statute Revisions Act, and set out rules regarding the revision of enactments and make related amendments to the Interpretation Act and Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act.

The Department of Justice engaged with other departments, the leaders of the Intergovernmental Council of the Northwest Territories, the clerk of the Legislative Assembly, the judiciary, and members of the law society. The department also consulted with two Indigenous governments as required under their self-government statutes.

Comments were broadly supportive, and some revisions were made regarding references to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the publication of notices when editorial changes or corrections are made to legislation.

I would like to thank standing committee for its study of the bill. I concurred with two motions proposed by standing committee.

The first motion amended subclause 17(1) of the bill to require the approval of the clerk of the Legislative Assembly for pre-publication corrections to an Act.

The second motion replaced paragraph 18(2)(a) of the bill to require that the clerk of the Legislative Assembly satisfy themselves that any copy of the Act to be certified accurately reflects the Act as enacted by the Legislative Assembly.

This concludes my remarks, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 22. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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

Yes, please.

Does the committee agree?

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber.

Minister, please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right, I have Mr. Brad Patzer, assistant deputy minister, attorney general.

I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, the committee that reviewed the bill, for any opening comments on Bill 22.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 22, Legislation Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 12th, 2025, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review. The committee received one written submission and held one briefing in the course of its review. The standing committee completed its clause-by-clause review of the bill with the Minister of Justice on September 12th, 2025. The committee proposed two amendments which were concurred with by the Minister.

I thank the committee for their efforts in reviewing the legislation. Individual Members may have individual additional comments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 22.

Does the committee agree that there are no further general comments?

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

There are 152 clauses in the bill. Where possible, I will call clauses in groups of 10. Does the committee agree?

Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses.

Please turn to page 11 of the bill. Clause 1 to 10, does the committee agree?

Please turn to page 18 of the bill. Clauses 11 to 20, does the committee agree?

Please turn to page 24 of the bill. Clauses 21 to 30, does the committee agree?