Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 64 has had second reading and is moved to standing committee.
The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 65, An Act to Amend the Safety Act, be read for the second time.
This bill amends the Safety Act to provide more clearly for occupational health and safety programs, committees and representatives and a Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, and repeal an amendment that never came into force and is no longer needed.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 65 has had second reading and is referred to standing committee.
Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly Retiring Allowances Act and the Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act; Committee Report 16-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Public Accounts; and Committee Report 19-17(5), Report on the Review of the Auditor General’s Report on Corrections in the NWT, with Mr. Bouchard in the chair.
I’ll call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Bill 66, Committee Report 16-17(5) and Committee Report 19-17(5).
Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
I’ll go to the mover of the bill. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Legislative Assembly Retiring Allowances Act and the Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act currently provides survivor benefits to a Member or a former Member’s dependent children if they are less than the age of majority or if they are under the age of 25, unmarried and attending school or university on a full-time basis.
The amendments to the Legislative Assembly Retiring Allowances Act and the Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act will broaden the definition of a child to include an adult child who is dependent on a Member or a former Member for the necessities of life. This definition mirrors the Canada Income Tax Act definition of a child and will entitle a Member or a former Member’s adult dependent child to survivor pension benefits.
These amendments were drafted at the request of a current pensioner and are supported by the Board of Management of the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Do you have witnesses to bring into the House?
Is committee agreed?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the House.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Can you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Kelly McLaughlin, director, legislation division, Department of Justice; and my right-hand man, Mr. Tim Mercer, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. I’ll open with general comments to the bill. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to welcome Mr. Blake to the witness table, and colleagues.
Just some housekeeping items with respect to this act. When something like this comes into play it will definitely factor into the quantities, the dollar figures in the pension fund and make changes thereof. Has there been any actuarial performance done as to what impact this may have on our current plan?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll refer that to Mr. Mercer.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Mercer.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The pension plan actuaries have reviewed these amendments and have provided their view that the potential implications of the amendment are speculative. In other words, there’s no certainty that they will ever be called upon for use, and if they are called upon for use that they will have a negligible impact on the actuarial evaluation of the pension plan.
I appreciate the response to that. To the question of timing, if this bill goes through here, when does this bill become enacted in terms of affecting… I assume, it was brought forward by one of the pensioners. When would this trigger any type of monetary flow?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This will come into effect immediately at assent.
Thank you. I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Committee, we’re on general comments on Bill 66. Committee is agreed we’ll go to clause-by-clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
I’ll pass the bill number and the title. Go to clause number 1.
---Clauses 1 through 7 inclusive approved
To the bill as a whole.
Agreed.
Does committee agree that Bill 66 is ready for third reading?
---Bill 66 as a whole approved for third reading
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you.
Committee, as we’ve agreed, we’ll go to Committee Report 16-17(5), Report on the Review of 2013-2013 Public Accounts, and I’ll go to the chair of Government Operations, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On June 2, 2015, the House received a report from the Standing Committee on Government Operations on the Review of the 2013-2014 Public Accounts. The report contains eight recommendations to the government, and on January 22 and 23, 2015, the standing committee examined the public accounts of the Northwest Territories with the assistance of staff in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and the Office of the Comptroller General and the GNWT’s Department of Finance.
On February 12, 2015, the standing committee examined the consolidated financial statements of NT Hydro Corporation and its subsidiary companies, with the assistance of the staff from NT Hydro. The standing committee thanks the Assistant Auditor General, Terry DeJong, and his staff for their assistance in this review. The committee also thanks NWT comptroller Bill Merklinger and his staff and the NT Hydro president and CEO, Emmanuel DaRosa, and his staff for their appearances before the committee during the public review.
The standing committee has seen a notable improvement in the timely completion of the financial statements by the department, boards and agencies and the government reporting entity. The standing committee acknowledges this achievement and encourages the GNWT to keep up the good work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Committee, we’ll just deal with the motions in the report. First I’ll go to Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of motions. I move that this committee again recommends that the Minister of Finance provide the committee with the interim public accounts by August 31st of each year in time for committee review of the government’s business plans.
Thank you. Motion is on the floor and being distributed. Motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make a brief comment here. The committee has found, as we’ve reviewed public accounts over the last couple of years, that Finance has done a good job at getting the public accounts ready earlier and earlier each year, and they were able to get us the interim public accounts prior to August 31st in 2014 and we simply wanted to reiterate that this is an excellent practice and we want to make sure that Finance continues to do that in years going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called.
---Carried
Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee again recommends that the Department of Finance continue to work with the Auditor General of Canada and GNWT departments, boards and agencies to complete the interim and final public accounts at the earliest possible date each year and in time for their respective statutory reporting deadlines.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Motion is in order. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of brief comments again. There are or there have been, over the years, quite a number of agencies and boards that have not met the filing deadline for their public accounts and it has meant that the final public accounts were delayed. In this past year I think there were two who didn’t meet their deadline. Some of them asked for a deadline and I think there was only one that didn’t meet the deadline after they asked for an extension. So, committee feels very strongly that it is a requirement by law that people meet their statutory deadline for filing their audits and we wanted to, through this motion, note that and make sure that Finance continues to work hard with the agencies to get it done and it is working with the Auditor General, as well, which helps boards and agencies get their audits done at the right time.
So I just wanted to explain the motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.
