Statements in Debates
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think the idea, I know the idea here is that we heard the Minister of Lands make a statement earlier in this sitting, as well, about a land use planning forum that happens, I think, every couple of years, where different land use planning boards, bodies, come to together to talk about their lessons learned, how they can share their experience moving forward. There is already an NWT board forum where the co-management bodies in the Northwest Territories get together to talk about how they can collaborate, maybe joint training, working together on issues. I think the...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I will keep this quite brief. I know our time is getting tight.
The effect of this motion is to remove the Minister's unfettered discretion as it currently reads in 10(6) and also put in a timeline for making a decision of 90 days. We heard one of the Minister's staff talk about how they accepted a decision to be made within months, and I think this just makes sure that we have a timely process by inserting a time frame for doing that. This is becoming common practice in a lot of decision-making, or sorry, a lot of legislation, including the Access to Information, the...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Under section 97 of the bill, it says that:
"The Minister shall table a report to the Legislative Assembly at least every five years with respect to status of candidate protected areas, state of protected areas established under the act, and the overall state of the protected areas network in the Northwest Territories."
So that is a reporting requirement on the part of the Minister every five years. I think the intent of committee here was to just make sure that that is a collaborative effort moving forward, and that the management boards that are actually established for...
Merci, Monsieur le President. My educational background includes a planning degree, and that is what brought me to the Northwest Territories on December 15, 1985, to become the land-use planning coordinator for the Dene Nation. I had the privilege of working directly with some great Northerners, including David Krutko, George Barnaby, Gina Bayha, Violet Camsell-Blondin, Raymond Jones, and Michael Nadli. I have maintained a keen interest in land-use planning and looked over the document "Finding Common Ground" tabled in the House a couple of days ago by the Minister of Lands.
The Tlicho...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I support much of what my colleague, the MLA for Kam Lake, said. He served as chair of the committee. Not a lot of us actually have a copy of the report in front of us. I just want to quote from one paragraph, Mr. Chair. This was to try to capture the views of NWT citizens on this issue.
"In each of the smaller communities to which the committee travelled, committee heard support for the inclusion of genetic characteristics as a prohibited ground of discrimination under the act. Mr. Mike Keizer, a Parks Canada employee from Fort Smith, expressed his support for prohibiting...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The conclusion, as I read it in the report, is we conclude that, for the present or near future, near-term future, a ban on such information would likely have no significant negative implications for insurers or for the efficient operation of markets such as life insurance. That says it all to me, Mr. Chair.
I just have one other sort of general question. This notion of adverse selection, how does something like no-fault insurance work for auto insurance in BC in terms of people's driving records and so on? I know it's a state-run system, but they seem to have overcome that...
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that explanation of what was in the federal legislation and what it covered in status, and so on, but is there any evidence that, as a result of this, in the federal legislation, any insurance companies have vacated the marketplace or refused coverage in any areas of federal jurisdiction as a result of the passage of that bill? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That wasn't really my question, but I am glad to get that information. Has our government received any correspondence, communications from individual brokers, individual insurance companies, that they would withdraw coverage for residents of the Northwest Territories if genetic diversity was added into this bill? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. This is, again, I think, a good piece of work, and I want to applaud the work that the Minister did to bring the bill before the House. This is the first time that I think it has gone through a comprehensive review. The Human Rights Commission itself was behind many of the changes in shifting the system more to a restorative approach, which I think is a good thing, but also clarifying some roles and responsibilities so that our citizens can better access their human rights as well.
I support many of the changes that were made to the bill. I think that there is one big...
I want to thank the Minister for confirming my understanding of how the committee is to work, and similar in function to these other boards. One of the features of the land use planning boards for the Gwich'in and Sahtu settlement areas is that they continue on into the implementation phase of land use planning by checking on the conformity with proposed land uses once a plan has been approved. Can the Minister explain whether the Wek'eezhii land use planning committee will have a role in the implementation of any land use plan approved for that area, and tell us what that role would look like...