R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Well, during that incamera discussion, I didn't say that this is a bad piece of legislation. I said that if I would have started if I could have gone back, I would have started over again in a different way because I see that the GNWT, being exempt from this bill or being having different provisions applied to it under this bill would not go over well with the Regular Members. And lo and behold, here we are in this situation where it was reported back as not ready.

There is you know, when we see that the Government of the Northwest Territories is being treated differently, that in...

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to deal with Bill 65 and Bill 84 as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Cabinet won't be supporting this. As one of the Members pointed out, there is a specific information in here and there's also very broad and general information in the subclauses I guess subclause (4). What we want this piece of legislation to be is something that people can look at and understand what lien legislation in the territories is, and what this would require people to do is go and now read agreements and before they do work for Indigenous government to determine whether there's any inconsistencies. They might just say, why bother. So I'm not quite clear what...

Thank you. No, but when it comes to the GNWT, there are other ways that we protect workers. So I know the Department of Finance has introduced new security requirements for bids and contracts earlier this year, and that will help protect small businesses, specifically those engaged in constructing GNWT projects, by providing adequate payment coverage through labour and material bonds. Thank you.

Thank you. And further to Mr. Yap's comments, this would not apply to settlement lands.

Engagement that was done with Indigenous governments occurred during the committee process actually. The chair referenced this. We reached out to a number of the Indigenous governments and organizations in the territory explaining the situation and requested feedback on potential inclusion of Indigenous governments or exclusion from the act. Thank you.

Private lands can be seized and sold. Thank you.

Thank you. Municipal governments don't have the same powers of taxation. They don't have the same revenue as the GNWT. And there's chances that they could be in a situation where they can't pay workers. And we also have to look at the bill as a whole and what is the point of the bill if, you know, we add more and more and more exclusions, then are we really fulfilling the spirit of this legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this bill, the GNWT is exempt from provisions of this bill that other levels of government are not exempt from. And that's actually the current situation in the Northwest Territories right now under the current Mechanics' Lien Act. So this is a continuation of the status quo in terms of the application of the bill to governments. Thank you.

Thank you. To my right is Matthew Yap, director of legal registries with the Department of Justice. To my left, Brian Asmundson, registrar of land titles. And behind me is Mr. Ian Rennie, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice.