R.J. Simpson

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.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm pleased to be here to present Bill 65, Builders' Lien Act.

The purpose of Bill 65 is to repeal the current Mechanics' Lien Act and replace it with a more modern Builders' Lien Act to address modern construction practices.

Lien legislation is in place to ensure that parties who contribute work, labour, or materials to a construction project in the NWT are paid, and to provide a remedy if they are not. Lien legislation also creates stability and predictability for owners of construction projects by setting out their obligations to other parties involved in a...

I don't have a problem generally with you know, with I wouldn't generally have a problem with something like this. You know, like the Member from Yellowknife North, I'm not a fan of the recurring statutory reviews. As a Regular Member, I've been part of those. I found that, if anything, they hinder progress on amending acts. But, you know, we just discussed the UNDRIP Act and, you know, we're moving in a different direction in the coming Assemblies. And in this even in this government, we have introduced protocols and processes that limit the amount of legislation that we can do. And going...

Mr. Speaker, this Legislative Assembly has made it a priority to advance universal child care for residents of the Northwest Territories. In December 2021, we signed the Canadawide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the federal government, and since then we have worked closely with licensed early learning and child care programs and early childhood educators to advance this mandate. As of April 1st, the average cost of licensed child care for children five years of age and younger has been reduced, on average, by 60 percent. This means that families in the NWT are now saving up to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a standard nonderogation clause. You can find it in other pieces of legislation. I think that this is a good idea. I'm happy to support this. And going forward, we should always consider including these in bills. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there's settlement lands. There's other types of lands that might be owned by an Indigenous government. And the Member's probably I know the Member's more of an expert on land than I am. I know that's his background. He came here in 1985 to work on those types of issues, so. And I can perhaps hand it to Mr. Yap for some further explanation of how the land if the Member would like. I know we're on his clock here. So, yes, I see him shrugging. So to Mr. Yap. Thank you.

Thank you. So I will hand it to Mr. Yap for a more detailed explanation. Thank you.

Thank you. Indigenous governments are bound would be bound by this act as well. And I will say that if municipalities and Indigenous governments were in the same position as the GNWT, they would then have to comply with other they'd have to abide by the surety bond section of the act, which would mean that they would have to have contracts that are bondable, which would have an impact on could have an impact on their ability to get people to do work in certain regions of the territory as well. Thank you.

Thank you. And there's been comments about protecting, you know, other protecting governments. The legislation's not about protecting governments, it's about ensuring that workers get paid. And the GNWT is not an entity that we're worried about being insolvent. There's not a concern that the GNWT won't pay their bills. There's you know, we hear concerns from the Members about when the bills get paid, but the issue isn't that they won't get paid. Thank you.