Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Environmental Protection Act, be read for the second time. This bill makes several amendments to the Environmental Protection Act. It removes the non-application provision; authorizes the Minister to establish and make publicly available a register respecting environmental contaminants; authorizes the Minister to determine that discharges are nuisances; authorizes the Minister to exempt persons from complying with the act or the regulations; creates a new exception to the prohibition against releasing contaminants for discharges authorized under other legislation and provides that the exception to the prohibition does not apply to nuisance discharges; requires persons intending to discharge environmental contaminants to register with the Minister, obtain a licence or permit, and provide the prescribed information; and broadens the regulation-making powers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I know the Minister is anxious to get on, but I had a closer look at this bill last night, and I do have some concerns.
First off, the department, and I want to commend them for this, they did go through an extensive public consultation around what was called the Northwest Territories Air Regulatory Framework last summer. I submitted comments as an individual. One of those sets of comments was around whether the issuing of air permits is something that might be handled by the land and water boards, who already have a well-established system of doing so that allows for quality public engagement opportunities.
The department did summarize some of the comments that they received back in March of this year. They put out a "What We Heard" document, but it was never really clear what the next steps were, and, all of a sudden, here we have a bill that is landed before us. I will be the last one to try to slow this down, but I think there is a gap here between what the department heard and then this step that is taken, without really indicating what kind of an approach the department is really taking on this. I think there may be a department from the original approach that was laid out in the air quality framework of a year ago, and I would recommend to the Minister that he provide an update that could perhaps be put on the website to let people know what the current approach is.
One matter that I am concerned about in the bill is the ability of the Minister to exempt persons or classes of persons from the act or the regulations. I think that raises some issues around what kind of terms and conditions should be placed on that and what will motivate a Minister perhaps to exempt persons or classes of persons from the application of the act and the regulations, so I do have some general concerns with the principles of this bill, Mr. Speaker. I would urge the Minister to certainly inform the public about what is going on and how the Northwest Territories air quality Framework may have been modified or the approach that was suggested there may have been changed or modified in some way with this bill. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 27 has had its second reading and is now referred to a committee. Second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Tobacco Tax Act; Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act; Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2; Committee Report 10-18(2), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Review of Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act Response to Report within 120 Days; Minister's Statement 186-18(2); Tabled Document 383-18(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018; Tabled Document 384-18(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018. With the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 18-18(2), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House, with the Member for Hay River North in the chair.
I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Committee would like to consider Minister's Statement 186-18(2); Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act; Committee Report 10-18(2): Report on the Review of Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act, in that order. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. First, a short break.
---SHORT RECESS
I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have first agreed to consider Minister's Statement 18618(2), Update on the A New Day program. Minister, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?
I do.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses to the House.
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Leanne Gardiner, director of community justice and policing. To my right is Deputy Minister of Justice Martin Goldney.
Thank you, Minister. I will open the floor to general comments. Do I have general comments on this tabled document? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will have a number of questions for the Minister about this new contracting relationship based on the fact that this is a non-profit organization that has not been a service provider of this kind in the past, and so I will have questions that relate to the qualifications of this service provider to provide the A New Day program.
I am also interested in finding out whether there have been changes to the RFP that was put out earlier and what those changes might be. I will also have some questions about attracting clients who are not offenders to the program. Of course, John Howard is related services for offenders, and so, those people who are not offenders and who are using the A New Day program, I do wonder if they will feel the stigma of using the program in that location. Finally, we know that there was a very rigorous evaluation of the initial program, but I have not heard very much about how the successor program will be monitored and evaluated. That will be the gist of my questions when the time comes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Green. The time is now if you would like to start asking those questions of the Minister.
Oh, I thought this was a time for general comments. Okay. Very good, then. My first question is: what are the qualifications of the "qualified counsellors" who are providing this program? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Perhaps Ms. Gardiner could assist with that.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Gardiner.
Thank you. What we asked for in the RFP and what we will continue to require from our contractor is counsellors with a counselling degree and several years' experience or equivalent, and that is what we will require our contractor to provide, as well, to contract with counsellors who are qualified to deliver this program, same as the program has done in the past.
Thank you, Ms. Gardiner. Mr. O'Reilly.
Have you finished, Ms. Green?
You should keep going.
Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do you understand from this, then, that the John Howard Society is not providing the counselling itself but rather subcontracting the counselling, and, if subcontracting, then to whom? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Sebert.
Yes, that's correct. The John Howard Society is in the process of contracting with counsellors. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Ms. Green.
Thank you. Do I understand that the John Howard Society will require the same qualifications of counsellors as in the original RFP? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Sebert.
Yes, that's correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Ms. Green.
Thank you. The next question concerns the RFP that was let during the winter and received no takers. I understand there have been some negotiations to get to this point, so could the Minister tell us what changes have been made to the RFP in order to secure the agreement announced today? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Sebert.
I understand there were not changes to the RFP, but perhaps Mr. Goldney could expand on my answer. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Mr. Goldney.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Recalling that what was offered was a request for proposals, it was always anticipated that proponents might come back with some potential options, always recognizing, of course, that it would have to be within the bounds of what we were looking for. I am happy to report that is where we ended up with the John Howard Society, so there hasn't been anything that I would describe as a change to the request for proposals.
Thank you, Mr. Goldney. Ms. Green.
Thank you. Could the Minister please outline, then, the program that will be undertaken by the John Howard Society? Is it the one that he most recently discussed with us, which is basically a group counselling program? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Sebert.
I understand that it's the same. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Sebert. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is it the Minister's intention to make the proposal in this case available to the standing committee and/or public? Thank you.
