Glen Abernethy

In determining the amount and deciding to bring this bill forward, was there any assessment done as to the amount of reduced cases being brought to the Supreme Court, but in correlation, the increase in the work demand or workload on the Territorial Court as a result of these changes?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to thank the Minister for bringing this bill forward. It increases the monetary limit in civil cases from $10,000 to $35,000, as the Minister said. In committee this was discussed and it was felt that increasing it from $10,000 to $35,000 would speed up the court process as many people -- I think this is correct, correct me if I’m wrong -- a lot of housing issues that are going to the courts are forced to the Supreme Court because they’re just over $10,000, and this may expedite a number of those situations and allow us to clean up some of the cases...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to thank the Minister for bringing forward the Heritage Act. There certainly has been a lot of talk about the Heritage Act over the last four years and I think it’s good that it finally came through. For me, as the purpose indicates, the Heritage Fund is to ensure that the future generations of people in the Northwest Territories benefit from ongoing economic development, including the development of non-renewable resources. Ultimately what this comes down to is this is for the people. This is for the people of the Northwest Territories both today, but more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister. Clearly it’s the commitment of the film industry, representative of the film industry and the departments of both ITI and ECE that have led to the success in this area. One of the areas that they talked about or the Minister has touched on is the funding that is now available to the film industry through SEED. It’s $100,000, which is, clearly, great. I’m wondering what kind of mechanism they have to assess the value of those dollars that we’re spending, how we’re going to track those dollars to make sure that they are in fact bringing...

I was hoping that would be the answer and I encourage the Minister to have his staff at the Film Commission start to go out and research the other communities. I do know that there are a lot of filmmakers in the other communities, people who can do duplication and things like that.

The other area -- and this is an area that came up an awful lot during the consultation -- was the relationship between ITI and ECE and how these two departments really need to work together in order to really enhance the film industry in the Northwest Territories. They do have similar mandates, but they do have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last couple of years I and some of my colleagues have worked hard to highlight to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and his department the significant advantages supporting a home-grown film industry will bring to the Northwest Territories. I believe that this multi-million dollar industry is good for the people of the NWT in many ways.

First, it employs a significant number of Northerners, and with support will potentially employ more.

Second, film and media produced and developed by our talented Northerners highlights the cultural diversity and...

That sounds good and I agree and support that, but in the back of my mind it’s suggesting or screaming to me that it may actually increase the demands on the Territorial Court, because many people don’t file now if it’s above $10,000, between $10,000 and, say, $20,000, just to pick a number, because the amount of paperwork required and the fact that you need a lawyer to take it to the Supreme Court level can get quite expensive and there’s no guarantee that you’re ever going to be successful. Whereas if it’s at the Territorial Court and you don’t need a lawyer to be involved, people might be...

So it appears that with the exception of one that is going to be increased to $30,000, we’re at least $10,000 above any of the other jurisdictions. I’m wondering what was the research behind that. How did we determine or decide that $35,000 in the Northwest Territories is the appropriate amount?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think my colleague Mr. Hawkins did a good job describing what this is about. This is simply a motion to get the future government in 10 years to conduct a review of the concept of a special majority. It was brought forward by committee and it wasn’t fully supported by Cabinet. There is some merit to looking into it and exploring it and doing some research. It definitely requires some additional research and I think 10 years from now when this comes forward for review is a good time for us to review the concept of a special majority. There might actually be some...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up on the comments of my colleague Ms. Bisaro. Over the last four years it’s come up many times where certain regulations would have benefited from a review of Regular Members prior to being enacted. I would say that often this would be the exception as opposed to the rule. Many regulations will not likely ever need to come to this level to be approved, but clearly, without question, there will be those certain or specific regs which would benefit from that public review as well as review by the Members of the Assembly. The reason it’s here is...