Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I think he realizes that I have some questions with regard to the Local Authorities Elections Act. I mentioned that there were some consultations done. There was a discussion paper put forward. I think the end of consultation was in February or March of this year. I would like to know if the Minister can advise what the results of that consultation and that discussion paper are. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct. There was a discussion paper put out for some input into some of the proposed amendments to the Elections Act. We are assessing some of the results of the questions that were proposed out there, and we are just preparing a draft report and we are hoping to have that done fairly soon, so we can share that with the Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister for that update. I expect that I will probably be asking what “soon” means later on, but I would like to ask the Minister first…The residency requirement wasn’t really addressed in the discussion paper. It was referenced, but somewhat obliquely. I want to know from the Minister whether or not there will be an opportunity once results of the consultation are out, whether there is an opportunity to go back and discuss particularly the residency requirement eligibility for voters section. Thank you.
One of the questions in the consultation/discussion paper was around the issue of residency requirements and a lot of the folks that did respond did say that there needed to be some adjustments made to the residency requirement issues. So this was taken into consideration and then we will be preparing a report to present to Members. Thank you.
I think the reference to the residency requirement had to do with allowing for temporary absences. I don’t believe the question addressed the length of residency that is required to allow somebody to vote in a municipal election. So I’d like to ask the Minister again whether or not that particular section of the act, the length of time that’s required for a resident to live in the community or make it, sorry, not the community but make it the Territory. Will that be addressed? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the questions that the Member raises will be addressed. There will be an opportunity for more input into the process. We are, between now and the summer session, wanting to come back with an LP and that will give Members an opportunity to suggest some changes, with a possibility of introducing a bill in the May/June session. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to now ask the question to the Minister -- he says we’ll get the report, the results of the consultation and the report soon -- what might “soon” mean? I have to ask this question very often of Ministers. Are we talking one month? Three months? Six months? Two years? Hopefully not two years, because he’s talking about an LP soon. So when might that be? And at that time when those results of the consultation come forward, will there be an opportunity for further input, not necessarily from Members but from the public? Thank you.
By soon…I have to remember to do that when I’m responding to the Members’ questions, because I always leave myself open for that. So in the future I will come up with a specific date; November 25th, 2009, type of thing. So I will follow up with the department and see where we’re at with this. Hopefully, if there’s an opportunity to get this out within the next month, then I would commit to doing that.
There’s always opportunity for input into some of the things we’re doing. We are proposing an LP come forward between now and the May/June session, so we can introduce the bill in May/June and have committee take that on the road. But there’s always opportunity for input into this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
