Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that, should any portion of a bill require federal concurrence, a statement to this effect be included in the legislative proposal; and further, that the relevant clauses be identified at the time of introduction to the appropriate standing committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Largely what this is about is having some more committee involvement in the earlier processes so that, when the job of doing the actual review of committee, when we take these kinds of bills out on the road, we have a better understanding of how we got that far in the process.

What we discovered often, when we were out there on the road, was that we were hearing from folks where they were expecting, maybe, some degree of clarification from us, where we had little or no information in many instances to be able to inform them.

We feel that there are many circumstances where earlier collaboration and better communication between ourselves and the Minister, and potentially the technical working group, would have been a much more streamlined line of communication between ourselves. We could have avoided a lot of concerns, and we could have been better prepared to answer a number of people's questions as we went through the process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that, when legislation is being developed using a technical working group, the appropriate standing committee work with the appropriate Minister to establish an agreed-upon way of keeping the committee informed of progress, key issues, and a way to have input into significant policy discussions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that, should a bill be excluded from a technical working group process, the Minister responsible for the bill advise the appropriate standing committee at the earliest possible opportunity, along with the rationale for the exclusion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have seen the committee try to make different attempts at getting something like this into legislation in recent weeks. We can't ignore that this is something that we have heard from the public at large, so this isn't about the committee's opportunity to go out and do public hearings. This is about prior to that. It is about the Government of the Northwest Territories engaging the public and allowing a process where they can be notified and that the public can make the necessary comments that they feel that they should.

By the time that we took a number of these pieces of legislation out on the road, we discovered that, quite frankly, there is a lot of public input to be had out there, whether it is from various stakeholders or from NGOs or just members of the public at large. We think that they have a significant contribution to be made and that they should be heard, and this would be a bit of a formalization of allowing them that opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories engage the public and interested stakeholders during the development of post-devolution legislation and regulations and that a public process is needed for the notification and public comment on regulations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that, when a technical working group is used in the drafting process, the Government of the Northwest Territories conduct a collaborative lessons-learned exercise with technical working group members at the conclusion of the process, to provide recommendations on how it could be improved for future legislation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We heard from IGOs and co-drafters, technical working groups, and they were generally very pleased and appreciative of the opportunity to co-draft legislation, but then felt that this would be also a very good collaborative process when it comes to regulation-making.

It was our understanding, when putting the questions to the respective Ministers, that that was going to be their intention on the most part, at least with regard to some regulations. We see that as very well-meaning and productive, but this would be a motion that provides some degree of formality to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop a standard process for how regulations will be developed for legislation that was developed under a technical working group. Thank you, Mr. Chair.