Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 322-18(3), Main Estimates 2019-2020, now be concluded and that Tabled Document 322-18(3) be reported as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order and is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Committee, we have agreed to next consider Committee Report 13-18(3), Report on the Review of Bill 31, the NWT 911 Act. I will go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations for any opening comments about the report. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On February 26, 2019, the Standing Committee on Government Operations presented its report on the review of Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act. The committee report included three recommendations, and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss the report and the recommendations in Committee of the Whole later today. Members of the committee may have individual comments. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. I will open the floor to any general comments on the report. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do have just a few brief comments that I would like to make. I want to thank the committee for letting me sit in on a lot of the meetings that they had regarding the report. I am quite pleased with the recommendations that came out of the report.
911 is something that was being worked on when I was on city council back in 1997 to 2006. This was not in our mandate, and I do appreciate the work of a couple of Ministers to bring this forward. I want to commend them for their hard work in getting this bill to us and that this is finally going to happen in the life of this Assembly. This is very important for the people of the Northwest Territories in terms of public safety, so again, I want to thank my colleagues for their hard work on this.
I still think that there is a lot of work to be done, though, in terms of implementation and working very closely with our community governments, particularly here in Yellowknife, where the centre is going to be located, in terms of how calls are handled and so on. I guess I would take a little bit of credit for the idea of having some public reporting around 911, in terms of the revenues, the number of calls, and the use of languages and so on. I think those are going to be important metrics as we move forward with the implementation.
I want to recognize the work of my Cabinet colleagues in moving this forward and the work of committee in improving the bill. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Me, too. I just wanted to acknowledge the efforts from all sides, including the Cabinet Ministers who were involved with advancing this forward. I think that we all realize the real need for such a system to be set in place here in the Northwest Territories, basically because of the need for more public safety and, of course, emergency situations. Therefore, it is timely that we move forward on this.
I know that there had been efforts from the 17th Assembly, as far as previous Assemblies that had wished that such a system would be in place. Now we have seen the advancement of cellular technology in small and remote communities. We have seen the fibre optic line that has been laid down from the southern parts of the NWT right up to Inuvik. There are more hopes and expectations that such a critical, life-saving service could be provided.
There are ongoing challenges. One of them is the presumption that such a service would be mainly in English, but as we all know, we have multiple official languages that we need to uphold. The challenge is to make a service that could be available to everybody in the Northwest Territories. However, there are, of course, some technical challenges in terms of how we are supposed to address that. For the most part, I am very happy and pleased that we have made tremendous progress on making 911 a reality in the near future. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Anything further to the report? Seeing none, I will just explain to everyone what happens with these reports. There are various recommendations made to the department in the reports, and those are generally moved as motions. If there are any recommendations which anyone would like to move as motions, I will go to that person now. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs work with the Department of Finance to develop a strategic approach designed to secure support and funding to expand cellular coverage in the Northwest Territories as part of a national cellular network; and further, that this strategic approach identify current cellular coverage, along with funding needs and goals for future cellular coverage, and timelines associated with system improvements; and furthermore, that this strategic approach consider appropriate ways to involve the Government of Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, and large cellular service providers, such as TELUS and Bell Canada, in any system improvement efforts. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee has read its report into the record, so I won't go into the full details, but sufficient to say, a number of concerns raised by the public in our consultations and from Members representing their constituencies were very clear that the bill alone could not address many of the issues that will be required for 911 coverage to be a success in the program.
The committee feels very strongly that this is a life-saving program that is going to make a big difference in the lives of Northerners, but to ensure that, this motion, in particular, addresses the need for expanded cellular coverage, especially in the smaller communities and in regions where there are large stretches of road without adequate coverage. The concern is that, if there is an accident there, it won't matter if you have 911 or not if you can't get a cell signal on your phone.
It is imperative that we improve this communications infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. We can't do it alone, and this motion contemplates how the government can take concrete actions to deliver more extensive cellular service in the Northwest Territories and adequately support the life-saving goals of the 911 program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs develop a detailed municipal implementation plan that sets out the information and supports needed by each local authority to ensure successful implementation of NWT-wide 911 service; and further, that this implementation plan identify a realistic time frame for discussion with local authorities and that the department be prepared to adjust the go-live date to a later date, if necessary, to accommodate the consultation needs of local authorities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We spoke to many municipalities around their concerns with the implementation of 911 and how best the government can support the implementation in a way that everyone can meaningfully participate and have adequate resources. To capture that, the committee has made this recommendation to ensure that municipalities are ready and prepared for the role of 911, that it doesn't impact their existing provision of emergency services, and that everyone moves to a smooth transition after the 911 service goes live.
This motion contemplates it being the responsibility of the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to develop this implementation plan in meaningful consultation with all of our communities where 911 service will be implemented. So we are hoping that this motion is carried and that this plan comes into place before the implementation of 911. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. To the motion. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We really appreciate the work that was done by committee on the reports in bringing these three motions forward as well as the discussion that we had in committee. We know this is very important. We have to make sure that all of our communities and our municipals are ready and prepared when we do this implementation. As this is a recommendation to Cabinet, I will be abstaining from the vote, as the previous motion. However, I just want to let committee know and Members and the general public that Cabinet is very supportive in the rollout of the 911 services. Being the first year that we are going to be rolling this out and we want to do it right, we will be monitoring and evaluating the program, and we will committing to keeping committee apprised of the rollout of 911. I do appreciate all of the work that committee has done on the report and, as we go further into the bill later on today, the amendments that were made, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All Those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs provides a response to the recommendations contained in this report within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion on the floor. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Seeing nothing further from committee, does committee agree that we have concluded consideration of Committee Report 13-18(3), Report on the Review of Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act?
Agreed.
CHAIRPERSON (Mr. Simpson): Thank you, committee. That concludes our consideration of the report. We have agreed to next consider Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act. The purpose of the Northwest Territories 911 Act is to create a Northwest Territories 911 service for the reporting of emergencies through a public safety answering point or call centre.
Bill 31 requires communities, communications providers, and emergency service providers to participate in the establishment and operation of the 911 system, which is necessary for its effective operation throughout the Northwest Territories.
Bill 31 authorizes development and administration of policies, standards, and guidelines that are necessary to operationalize the system, deter inappropriate use of the 911 system, and authorize the call centre to perform additional work on behalf of community governments, such as direct dispatch for their emergency first responders.
A significant aspect of Bill 31 is the setting of a cost-recovery fee. As Members of this House are aware, the goal of the 911 system is to ensure it operates on a full cost-recovery basis. The fee will apply to all communication devices used in the Northwest Territories which connect to 911, including landlines, wireless devices, and Voice Over Internet Protocol connections.
Much work is under way to implement 911 throughout the Northwest Territories, including preparations for a 911 call centre; hiring and training of qualified staff; working with community governments to improve civic addressing; creating an inventory of available emergency services; implementing a public awareness campaign; system testing; and developing an effective means to evaluate our progress.
Municipal and Community Affairs has worked with the legislation division of the Department of Justice on Bill 31 and will continue working with them on the drafting of the regulations required to set the cost recovery fee. Municipal and Community Affairs intends to bring the act and regulations into force prior to the go-live date for the 911 system. The projected go-live date remains June 2019.
That concludes my opening remarks, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 31. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. At this point, we are going to call a brief recess so we can distribute the bill to Members, so we will reconvene in about five minutes. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call committee back to order. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, the committee that considered the bill, for opening comments. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am just trying to find my paperwork here. The Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to report on its review of Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act.
The committee read their substantive report into the House on February 26, 2019, giving details on our consultation on Bill 31. To commence its review of Bill 31, the Standing Committee on Government Operations sent letters inviting input from an extensive list of stakeholders, including all municipal and Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories and a number of non-governmental organizations.
The committee held four public hearings on Bill 31 in Fort Smith, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, and Yellowknife. As well, the committee received two written submissions on the bill, from the Hamlet of Tulita and the City of Yellowknife. On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank the communities who welcomed us on our travels and everyone who provided input on Bill 31.
The clause-by-clause review was held on February 21, 2019. At this meeting, the committee moved three separate motions to amend Bill 31. All three were carried, with concurrence from the Minister. At this time, I would like to recognize that the committee found the Minister and the department to be strong partners in the development of this legislation and sincerely appreciates that we were able to find common ground and concurrence with the motions to improve the bill by way of amendment. It is not lost on us. Sometimes, those differences of opinion can impact legislation, but, in this case, we were able to find a common vision for 911 services in the Northwest Territories and to work collaboratively to achieve it, and I think it is a strong example of how to draft good legislation in this Assembly.
With that, Mr. Chair, individual Members may have additional comments, but I have nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left, I have Cherie Jarock, who is the legislative council for the Department of Justice. On my immediate right, Mr. Ashley Geraghty, the 911 program manager for MACA, and, on my far right, Ms. Eleanor Young, my deputy minister for Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.
Thank you. Welcome to the witnesses. Committee, I will open the floor to general comments on Bill 31. Seeing none, we will proceed to a clause-by-clause review. We will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. I will call out each clause, and, if committee agrees, please respond accordingly. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.
---Clauses 1 through 14 inclusive, approved
Committee, those are all of the clauses. I will now call the bill number and title. Bill 31, Northwest Territories 911 Act.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 31?
Agreed.
To the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 31 is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Bill 31 is now ready for third reading. This concludes our consideration of the bill. I will go to Minister Moses for some closing comments.
Just really quickly, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the previous Ministers who worked on this bill. Obviously, I thank my staff, who did the hard work, went out, and did the consultation. I would like to thank the Chair for the comments that were made before we got into the proceedings of the bill and the work we have done collectively when we went through the clause-by-clause review. One thing that was important in the report was the comments from the municipal leaders and make sure that we take that into consideration. I just wanted to thank everybody involved. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us. You got a free ride today. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Mr. Testart.
I move that the Chair rise and report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will rise and report progress. First, I have to thank everyone who has been working behind the scenes. I know we have had some late nights this week. We really appreciate all the clerks, all the technicians, all the interpreters, and all the Pages who have been sticking it out with us over this last little while. Thank you to everybody.
