Agreed.
Mr. Abernethy, would you introduce your witness for us, please?
Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today is Mark Aitken. He is the acting assistant deputy minister for the Attorney General branch.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Welcome, Mr. Aitken. Bill 12. We will defer the bill and title page until after we have considered the clause-by-clause. Committee, we’ll move to clause 1.
---Clauses 1 through 4 inclusive approved
We’ll return to the previous page, Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2.
Agreed.
To the bill as a whole.
Agreed.
Does committee agree that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2, is ready for third reading?
---Bill 12 as a whole approved for third reading
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Thank you to your witness. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would escort the witness out of the Chamber.
We’ll move onto Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act. We’ll go to the Minister responsible for the bill. Mr. Abernethy, do you have any comments or an introduction to the bill?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m pleased to appear before committee today to speak to you about Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act.
There have not been any credit unions in the Northwest Territories since all of those that had been established failed in the late 1970s. After the depositors of the insolvent credit unions were compensated by the GNWT, a review to determine the cause of the collapse was conducted and one of its conclusions was that the act should be repealed. This was not done at the time, but the act was rendered inoperative with the repeal of most of the regulations and appointments under the act. The Credit Union Act is now very outdated.
Amendments to the Bank Act have been passed that will soon allow local credit unions to be incorporated or branches established under federal legislation. These credit unions would be regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the existing entity that regulates the banks, and deposits will be insured by the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation. I look forward to responding to any questions that committee may have.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I will now go to the chair of the committee that reviewed the bill, the chair of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act, on November 1, 2012. The committee thanks the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill.
The Credit Union Act is so out of date that it is inoperative. There have been no credit unions in the Northwest Territories since 1978. Meanwhile, changes to the federal legislation will soon enable NWT-based credit unions and national credit unions to operate here.
Bill 13 also deletes references to the Credit Union Act in two other territorial acts. Following the committee’s review, a motion was carried to report Bill 13 to the Assembly as ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.
This concludes the committee’s opening comments on Bill 13. Individual Members may have additional questions or comments as we proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Abernethy, do you have witnesses that you would like to bring into the House?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witness into the Chamber.
Mr. Abernethy, would you introduce your witnesses, please?
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my left I have Gary McDougall, the director of legal registries. On my right is Lucy Austin, legislative counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Committee will defer consideration of the title page… Right. Do we have any opening comments? I forgot that. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have some general comments. I just want to do due diligence on behalf of being a committee member that was present during the public review on November 1st of this year, with respect to the repeal of this act.
It would definitely be important to note and, again, to get reaffirmation and confirmation by the department and by the Minister that there is, indeed, no proponent, no one individual or no organization that is currently in the queue for any type of application process with respect to forming, or the intent of a credit union. I’m hoping that within the framework of the general comments that we can get that again, that reaffirmation, that reassurance that if we are going to be repealing, that there is going to be a gap in availability as we’re waiting for the federal statute to occur with respect to the formation of a credit union.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. There is nobody that we’re aware of. Nobody has expressed an interest or has indicated to the department or the government at this time that they’re interested. Even if there were, there would be a problem anyway. The regulations around the existing act have been pretty much gutted at this point so that even if somebody were to submit, we wouldn’t have the tools to consider them.
The federal government is working on their bill, which will hopefully be in place soon. Then if anybody chooses to pursue this in the future, there will be an opportunity, but there’s been a gap since probably the late ‘70s or early ‘80s until now. As I said, nobody has approached us expressing any interest to do this in the Northwest Territories.
No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Are there any further opening comments? Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to confirm; am I to understand that we are repealing this act and we’re not planning to bring another sort of updated equivalent in?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is correct.
Thanks for that confirmation. I’ve just, by way of a question, the Minister is comfortable that the new federal legislation, which has been passed but we’re waiting for implementation, will provide a full opportunity for a credit union to be established in the Northwest Territories as an NWT institution under federal law.
It will provide anybody who’s interested in doing that in the Northwest Territories the avenue to do so, yes.
Thank you for that. The last question I have is the act that’s been passed, does it strive to ensure, sort of, the local benefits that we’ve come to expect from credit unions where investors have the opportunity to invest locally and see their dollars bring the greatest benefit possible to the local and regional economies?
The federal legislation does provide the cooperative features that many have become familiar with when it comes to credit unions across the country.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Are there any further opening comments? Is committee agreed we will move to detail?
Agreed.
Okay. Committee, we will defer the title page of the bill. We’ll move to page 1, clause 1.
---Clauses 1 through 3 inclusive approved
Okay. Committee, we will go back a page to the title page of Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act. Does committee agree to the bill as a whole?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act is now ready for third reading?
---Bill 13 as a whole approved for third reading
Thank you, Minister. Thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Committee, we’ll move onto Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 3. The bill’s sponsor, Mr. Bouchard, I will go to you to introduce the bill. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am pleased to provide opening comments on Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 3.
Bill 15 amends the Human Rights Act to make the director of human rights an employee in the public service. The director will continue to be appointed by the Commissioner, on the recommendation of the Legislative Assembly, for a term of four years.
Bill 15 also allows the Legislative Assembly to make appointments to the Human Rights Adjudication Panel for terms ranging from two to four years. The amendment is proposed to help ensure that there is staggered turnover on the adjudication panel. It is anticipated that the vast majority of appointments to the panel will continue to be for four-year terms, such as the two appointments made to the panel earlier today.
Finally, Bill 15 allows the adjudication panel to appoint its own chairperson when both the chair and the deputy chair are absent or unable to act. This amendment ensures that the work of the panel is not unduly delayed for want of a chairperson.
In keeping with the Caucus protocol on legislation originating from the Board of Management, these amendments do not amend any of the substantive clauses of the Human Rights Act. They are administrative in manner and fall under those sections of the act that are administered by the Board of Management and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
I would be happy to answer any questions you might have on the bill.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Bouchard, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, Madam Chair.
Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please bring the witnesses into the Chamber?
Mr. Bouchard, if you would introduce the witnesses to the Chamber, please.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right is Tim Mercer, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly. To my right is Kelly McLaughlin, acting director, legislation, Department of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I will open the floor to general comments. Are there any general comments? Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a brief question as to… We seem to be modernizing this act. Is this act bringing us in line with what we’re seeing in other jurisdictions across Canada?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Bouchard.
Madam Chair, the importance of the changes here is to make it a little more… It is updating it. We are not consistent with all of the jurisdictions, but it is modernizing it. It is only the second director that we have in the position, so we are looking to modernize ourselves. Are we consistent with every jurisdiction? Every jurisdiction is a little bit different and ours is special in its own way.
