Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act, be read for the second time. This bill amends the Residential Tenancies Act to adjust the definition of "tenant," provide authority to rental officers to correct minor errors in their orders and decisions, require that orders and decisions of rental officers be filed in accordance with the regulations, allow for regulations to establish methods for filing orders and decisions of rental officers, and address inconsistencies and improve the clarity and readability of certain provisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 25 has had its second reading and is now referred to committee. Second reading of bills. Minister for Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, be read for the second time. This bill amends the Revolving Funds Act to establish a revolving fund for the purpose of meeting the capital, operating, and maintenance requirements for providing marine transportation services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. First off, I would like to start by saying that in no way am I opposed to our government operating the marine transportation system, and I believe that we had to do it at the time. I do support us operating the system and continuing to supply our communities with fuel and other supplies as necessary.
What I am opposed to, though, is setting this up as a revolving fund. My objections, Mr. Speaker, really stem from two things. First off, by setting it up as a revolving fund, capital spending will be removed from the regular capital budgeting process, and I believe that this will remove our ability as Regular MLAs to have thorough oversight of capital expenditures. So, for that reason, I am opposed to the bill.
Secondly, the purpose of the bill as specified here is for the purpose of meeting the capital, operating, and maintenance requirements for providing marine transportation services for the movement of cargo on Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie River, and throughout the Arctic coastal region. What I believe that this bill has not spoken to, and we certainly raised in the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, is whether these funds could be used to pay for remediation of many of the contaminated sites from the previous operator that our government has now inherited. So by limiting the purpose of the revolving fund to these purposes alone, I don't see remediation of contaminated sites in here. I am not suggesting that that be a core purpose of the revolving fund but, if this operation were to generate excess profits of one sort or another, I don't understand why they could not be used to offset some of the remediation costs. Otherwise, they are going to come back to the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories.
We raised this at committee. There was no movement from the Minister on rejigging the purpose of the bill, and so I will continue to oppose the bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion has been carried.
---Carried
Minister of Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 74(2) and have Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Unanimous consent granted
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to consider Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will take a very brief five-minute break and resume. Thank you.
I will now call the Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act, as amended and reprinted. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here today to introduce Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act. The current Health and Social Services Professions Act is an umbrella statute that will regulate a number of different health and social services professions. Before the act can come into force, amendments are required to address some oversights that were missed during the original drafting. These amendments were not identified until the department began developing the first profession-specific regulations.
The amendments addressing the oversights include:
requiring professionals to maintain continuing competency records;
authorizing the registrar to inspect, examine, or audit records to ensure a professional is fulfilling their continuing competency requirements; and
authorizing the Minister to approve items such as exams, programs, and guidelines for each profession.
Since statutes cannot be repealed or revised by regulations, Bill 18 also proposes consequential amendments on behalf of the first two profession-specific regulations for emergency medical services providers and psychologists. Since a bill was required to address oversights and consequential amendments, the department took advantage of this opportunity to expand and clarify existing registers in the act and the information that should be disclosed to the public in relation to a complaints and discipline process.
These proposed amendments include:
clarifying the information that must be included in the registrar's public register, including when the registrar places conditions on, suspends, or cancels a licence;
expanding the information a complaints officer must record in their register to include the entire complaints and discipline process; and
identifying what complaints and discipline information the complaints officer must direct the registrar to record in the public register.
Finally, amendments are proposed to restrict the use, collection, disclosure, and communication of personal health information throughout the act to ensure sensitive information is protected. Mr. Chair, I am happy to answer any questions Members may have.
Thank you, Minister. I will now turn to the Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, the committee that considered the bill, for any opening comments that he may have. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Development conducted public hearings on Bill 18 on April 6th in Yellowknife, on April 10th in Inuvik, and April 12th in Hay River. A clause-by-clause hearing was held on May 25th on the bill and was subsequently amended and reprinted. Members may have additional comments, or we may proceed with the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, please.
Sergeant-At-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On my right is Lisa Cardinal, the director of planning and evaluation with the Department of Health and Social Services, and on my left, Thomas Druyan, who is legislative counsel.
I'm sorry, Minister. Could you please repeat those names?
I went too fast? On my right is Lisa Cardinal. She is the director of corporate planning and evaluation; on my left is Thomas Druyan, who is legislative counsel.
Thank you, Minister. I open the floor to general comments. Do we have any general comments on Bill 18? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I beg forgiveness from the Minister here. I had a constituent complaint not that long ago from a veterinarian. Are veterinarians covered under this legislation? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
No, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. O'Reilly? Nothing further for opening comments from Mr. O'Reilly. Anything further from committee? I see nothing. Does committee agree there are no further opening comments? Agreed.
Agreed.
Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill? Thank you, committee. We will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. I will call out each clause, and committee may respond "agreed" if committee agrees. Clause 1.
---Clauses 1 through 16 inclusive approved
Thank you, committee. Committee, to the bill of the whole, does the committee agree that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act as amended and reprinted, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Bill 18 is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act as amended and reprinted?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Thank you, Minister, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion on the floor to rise and report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried.
We will now rise and report progress.
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act, and would like to report that Bill 18 is ready for third reading as amended and reprinted; and, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.
Masi. Do I have a seconder? Member for Kam Lake.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
