Louis Sebert

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the work that the committee has done with respect to this motion. However, we cannot support it for the reasons that I'll now provide.

Like Ombud legislation across Canada, subsection 15(1) currently provides that the Ombud's mandate is to investigate any decision or recommendation made or any other act done or not done by government that relates to a matter of administration. Although a matter of administration is not defined in the act, or in other Ombud legislation, a matter of administration could include any practice, procedure, action, or...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to introduce Bill 20, Ombud Act.

I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Government Operations for their review of Bill 20 and for the constructive feedback that they have provided. A number of motions were made in standing committee, and I am pleased that the bill has improved as a result.

This bill represents a longstanding priority for Members of the Legislative Assembly, as well as the government's general commitment to enhancing transparency and accountability.

An Ombud serves as a check on government, monitoring its treatment of citizens and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, be read for the second time. This bill amends the Human Rights Act to:

consolidate the office of the Human Rights Commission and the office of the Director of Human Rights into a single agency, the Human Rights Commission;

clarify the public interest mandate of the commission;

provide that restorative principles are to be applied to human rights protections and processes in the Northwest Territories;

provide for the carriage of complaints by the...

In discussions with members of committee, I thought we had come to some agreement with respect to this section. As I say, it is not unusual in law that there are limitations. In fact, although it is not quite the same kind of limitation, even section 22(1) talks about complaints, and section 22(1)(a), which is not a hard limitation in the same way, but I think that some limitation on the Ombud going back is reasonable. Thanks.

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, it is not unusual to have limitations in proceedings. I know there has been a good deal of discussion back and forth with committee about this very section. I thought we were inching towards a compromise, but I will hear further from the Members. Thank you.

Thank you. I believe that this motion improves the language that was originally in the act. It clarifies the issues that we were concerned about. For those reasons, I feel that the motion should be supported by all Members, but will be supported by Cabinet in any case.

As I said, there were issues that I raised with respect to the prior motion. We believe that this clarifies some of those issues. That is why we are supporting it. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Mike Reddy, legislative counsel; to my right is Charlene Doolittle, deputy secretary to Cabinet; and to her right is Allison Anderson, Cabinet policy advisor. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will be abstaining from this motion, but taking the motion as advice to Cabinet. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The date of January 1, 2016, seemed reasonable to us because it went back to certainly after we were elected and came to this House, and clearly, this is an issue that is important to the Assembly, which we have now brought forward. We thought that going back to that date is reasonable, because we thought that some date needed to be inserted. Again, we think that is a reasonable date.

I mentioned earlier section 22. Of course, the Ombud has certain discretion under that section, but we thought that this section, again, was reasonable and is a compromise, not totally what...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I say, there has been a good deal of discussion back and forth. It seemed to us that it was necessary to choose some date and I would be interested in hearing from the Regular Members as to what date they think is reasonable. I thought we had had some discussions that were leading to an agreement with respect to that. Thank you.