Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today my questions are for the Minister of Finance, also responsible for the NWT Liquor Act. Mr. Speaker, recently there have been various media reports that say the Minister has started a review of the Liquor Act. I am wondering: can the Minister share with us maybe some parameters with regard to this review, and when will Members see a little bit more detail with regard to the undertaking of this review? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The review will look at the legislation and regulation as well as the policies for the Liquor Licensing Board, and I look forward to the earliest opportunity to sit down with the Regular Members, the Regular Member committee, and have a discussion with them and receive some feedback. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. It is good to know that both legislation and regulation are going to be looked at, and thank you for his commitment to debriefing our Regular Members.
Mr. Speaker, the board says that it has an actual policy for not explaining its decisions publicly, and to some degree that kind of makes sense, but I have also been told that sometimes it is problematic for the people in businesses that have been directly impacted by some of these decisions to get replies and responses from the board. In some instances, they are having to go out and do what is called "lawyering up" and retaining lawyers to get the board to respond to them. My question to the Minister is: how can the Minister ensure that the Liquor Board operations are going to be consistent with our principles of open and transparent government, and will there be an appeal process identified in the new Liquor Act?
One of the three points we are looking at is to increase the transparency and accountability of the Liquor Licensing Board. Much like with everything we do here in the 18th Assembly, we need to improve our transparency and make it a very transparent process, so that is one of the things that we are looking at, as far as another appeal. I mean, we have to look at that. I don't think it would be wise to set up another level of appeal process that licensees have to go through. We will be looking at those, but we do not anticipate setting up another level of appeal. We will just work within the existing guidelines or the improved guidelines as we move forward.
Thank you to the Minister for his reply. It is a little bit troubling, I suppose, to hear that there may not be an appeal process. Most regulatory bodies do have some degree of an appeal process. Having to get lawyers can be costly and often drags out what could be a more expeditious process, but we will see what comes.
Mr. Speaker, the Liquor Act offers the board the ability to use discretion in its decisions, and we are aware that, in the more recent case with regard to the board's decision, this went against, in my view, what the Assembly's mandate and goals are. Mr. Speaker, legislation and policy are only as good as those who administer it. Will the review be looking at the structure, the mandate, and even the terms of reference of the board, itself?
That is something that we are contemplating looking at, the board itself, the structure of the board, but I think the most important thing here is to give the board the proper tools to make decisions and make decisions that are transparent and maybe even published. The board just operates under the guidelines, policies, legislation as it is laid out now, and, if we can improve the tools that the board operates under, then I think that would give them a better opportunity to make decisions that are consistent with the improved policies that we provide to them.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am probably going to go out on a limb here to make this next question even a suggestive-type question. That is, the City of Yellowknife as well as some of the regional centres do a lot of their own permitting and licensing already throughout various departments in their municipalities, and so I am just wondering if the Minister thinks that the act could be redesigned, let's say, to allow regional centres, and in particular the capital, to maybe administer their own permits and licensing as it relates to the Liquor Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want this review that we do on the Liquor Licensing Board or the guidelines to be as open as possible and to touch on many things. We have not had any discussions with the communities about that, but there is an opportunity again, as I said earlier, for stakeholder input, and we will be looking to hear from communities across the Northwest Territories to see if that is viable or if that is something that they would consider. We do want to make it a thorough examination of all the guidelines and policies and equip the boards so that they are making decisions based on an improved set. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
