Thank you, Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I suppose that is a conversation as if and when it happens. I do know that discussion over the future of MTS is still a conversation that we have yet to have, but it's not the right place to have it here. All I will say is that I thank the Minister for clarifying this budget line item and taking the necessary steps to remove it and pay for the Syncrolift facility from the revolving fund, which is appropriate based on the establishment of that revolving fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Any response from the Minister?
No, we'll take that as a comment, Mr. Chair, and we'll continue to keep the committee updated as we develop further into the operations of MTS. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Anything further? Seeing nothing, 2018-2019 Supplementary Estimate No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures), Infrastructure, capital investment expenditures, programs and services not previously authorized, negative $400,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
2018-2019 Supplementary Estimate No. 1 (Infrastructure Expenditures), Infrastructure, capital investment expenditures, total department not previously authorized, negative $400,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Tabled Document 3-18(3)?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 3-18(3), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2018-2019 be now concluded and that Tabled Document 3-18(3) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session in the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
The motion is carried. Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, you may escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Before we consider the committee report, I'll call a five-minute recess. Thank you, committee.
---SHORT RECESS
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Committee Report 1-18(3), Report on the Review of the Chief Electoral Officer's Report on the Administration of the 2015 Territorial General Election, Supplementary Recommendations and the White Paper on the Independence and Accountability of Election Administration in the Northwest Territories.
I will go to the chair of the committee responsible for the report, the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures, for any opening comments. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, I would like to acknowledge the hard work of my fellow committee members, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, and the Member for Nahendeh. We all worked very hard to come up with this report. I also want to thank the Chief Electoral Officer herself. She provided utmost cooperation to the committee, answered our questions, she appeared at two public hearings. She came up with some very thoughtful, thorough, and comprehensive recommendations for us to consider.
We had three different reports that we looked at and we decided that we would try to take a coordinated approach in responding to over 107 recommendations. Mr. Chair, I also wish to acknowledge and thank members of the public who made submissions. I mentioned how we had two public hearings; one on September 9, 2016, and the other on June 12, 2017. So what I want to leave my colleagues with is that there was a lot of thought and work that went into this report. That's not to say that we don't welcome debate and discussion and questions about it, but I do want to acknowledge the work of my colleagues, the public, and the Chief Electoral Officer in this important report.
The last thing I wish to mention, Mr. Chair, is that there is some urgency to move forward on this because there are a set of specific changes that are recommended to the Elections and Plebiscites Act, and for us to get those changes made in time for the next election, we need to deal with this report as soon as we can. As I understand it, the next steps would be, if these recommendations are accepted through the form of a number of motions, those would form drafting instructions and the board of management would go ahead and start to do that work. In any event, lots of work has gone into this report, and I look forward to debate and discussion about it, around the report today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Just to let everyone know what we're going to do, there are 15 recommendations in this report. After I open the floor to general comments, each recommendation will be treated as a motion, which Mr. O'Reilly will move. Are there any general comments on this report from committee? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and similar to my colleague who just spoke, I, too, want to take an opportunity to really thank the committee for its further report, but, more importantly, for the work that they undertook in reviewing recommendations, the consolidated recommendations. They were extensive. I again would have to commend the Chief Electoral Officer for doing that work. As a candidate in the previous election, certainly there were times in which I found that there was room for improvement in the process, whether it was to do with the act itself or whether it was to do with measures that come from the act.
In order to overcome this big challenge that we face as it relates to encouraging voters to turn out and vote, that a number of these recommendations certainly have to be enacted, and enacted sooner rather than later. As the Chair spoke of, we are two years into a term. It is not long before the Chief Electoral Officer has to start preparing for the next upcoming election. They will require a number of these changes to be brought forward to better support our form of democracy when it comes to an election, and to be able to promote, and encourage a higher degree of voter turnout because that is ultimately what this is about.
Modernizing and taking advantage of innovation are a couple of the things that we also have to take advantage of, and I am hoping that these recommendations will play a part in that. Those are just some of my general comments, and I look forward to sharing my perspective on some of the recommendations as we go forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, want to commend the work of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures. This committee has met extensively throughout the life of this Assembly, and has had many meetings on many matters that have been brought before it, and they have helped clarify everything from our code of conduct, guidelines, to the Mid-Term Review, and ultimately this is the last large piece of work that they have undertaken, and it was a substantial piece of work.
I also want to mention the Chief Electoral Officer has brought forward a very substantial work on her own initiative, and it is very good to see so much thought going to how we can modernize and improve our electoral system. Voter turnout and ease of candidacy has always been an issue, not just for our electoral system, but for many electoral systems. I am really pleased to be having this debate today, and to be considering these motions. All of us rely on a sound electoral system that is easy to approach, and encourages not only voters to turn out, but for candidates to put their name forward and step up to represent their communities. That can be a daunting challenge for many people.
I think much of what has been considered and what is being recommended is only going to help that, and I hope we are all challenged in the next election, and we all do our part to ensure a robust democratic process moving forward, so I look forward to the remainder of the afternoon while we will be debating these motions, and making real change to our electoral system. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Any further general comments? Seeing none, Mr. O'Reilly.
Mr. Chair, as you mentioned earlier, we are just going to work away through each of the recommendations as a motion.
The first recommendation I have: Mr. Chair, I move that the Assembly recommend that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to establish an electoral residency requirement of six consecutive months on or before polling day. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. There's a motion on the floor. The motion has been distributed and is in order. To the motion. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I support this motion. In fact, it was in my electoral platform that this was a change that I thought would be beneficial. Over the course of the election, I spoke to many residents of Kam Lake who had just moved to the riding. Kam Lake is a community on the grow, and some people were not able to vote because they did not meet that 12-month threshold. It is a curious thing that the three northern jurisdictions have a year-long residency that is required. I was just reading in the press the other day that there was a candidate in Nunavut who sought to run in the previous election, and was unable to because she failed to meet the one-year requirement which is also required for candidates.
I think this is a way to open up the electoral process and encourage more participation. The North is a place of opportunities, and we are always trying to attract new residents, and to have those new people's voices added to our democracy is only going to strengthen the exchange of ideas that MLAs bring forward, and to empower them to be part of our democratic process. I would even say, we could drop this from six months to as soon as someone establishes residency in the Northwest Territories, but I think the committee did consider that and ultimately decided on taking a balanced approach that cut the time requirements in half. I think this is a very important and positive recommendation, and I will be supporting it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The second motion is: I move that this Assembly recommend that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to set the first Tuesday in October as polling day, and that the November alternative polling day be eliminated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. There is a motion on the floor. To the motion. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and again, I appreciate the effort that the committee has put in, in doing some research with regard to this. What is interesting is that, in fact, the two jurisdictions in which the report references with regard to, that are voting currently on Tuesdays, interestingly enough, I have come to know that those jurisdictions, in fact, now are revisiting that and considering moving to Saturday.
It was the recommendation within the report that it be considered for a Saturday, and there is a lot of reasons for that, and the first is to do with the convenience for electors to attend the polls without having to schedule it into a busy workday. Of course, it would increase the voter attendance numbers. Secondly, many of the polling stations occur in schools, and a Saturday polling would alleviate any kind of concern with the schools and their schedules within the gymnasiums, and any security concerns associated with the presence of children.
Thirdly, Mr. Chair, a Saturday event would also allow for a significantly expanded human resources pool, which is always a challenge during elections for staffing up election positions. There are a number of people, individuals who possess adequate skills, that it would broaden the pool. A lot of times, those skills that are required for managing polls are people who are at work, commonly Monday to Friday. Certainly, it would increase the pool of people able to work during an election.
I am not going to make a motion to amend this, but I just wanted to, for the record, share my views that I was in support of the original recommendation to have a Saturday be considered. I am not sure that moving to a Tuesday, in fact, changes anything, and that the effort should even be considered. Why not just leave it on a Monday? Those are my comments, Mr. Chair, and I just wanted to be able to put those on the record. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just would like to respond briefly to my colleague, the honourable Member for Yellowknife North. I want to assure him that we did look at all of the options. On page 64 of the Chief Electoral Officer's report, there is a very interesting table of jurisdictions around the world and what their polling days are and also another figure showing the days that other Canadian jurisdictions use. We had all of that information available to us.
I think one of the reasons that we didn't really go with the recommendation from the Chief Electoral Officer was that having a poll on a Saturday might reduce turnout in small communities, in particular because people want to go out and get on the land and do their thing. This is coming at a time of the year in the fall when the ability to get out onto the land -- winter is coming. People want to get out and do their stuff. I think that is why we stuck with a day of the week.
We chose the Tuesday in particular because, with Monday, there is some reluctance on the part of candidates and their workers and so on to work on a Sunday. We felt that having the election on a Tuesday would still allow people to go out and do last-minute work on a Monday without upsetting people too much, perhaps. That is why we settled on a Tuesday. I appreciate the comments from my colleague from Yellowknife North, but wanted to offer that brief explanation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I, too, am supportive of the recommendation, going to a Tuesday to vote. I have the very same concerns as our chair. In the communities that I represent, I have seen the community empty out on the weekend sometimes in the fall time, when there is a lot of hunting and things like that. A lot of the community members from the community I represent go out hunting. They are back during the week for when the kids are back in school and so on.
In another community, a highway community, a lot of the people would just go to the neighbouring, larger community for services that they are not getting in their small community. This was something that we discussed and the reason we had changed the Chief Electoral Officer's recommendation of going to a Saturday to vote because, historically, small communities have come out to vote. Our turnout is, I would safely say, about 70 per cent. That way, we want to try to for sure maintain that type of voter turnout, if at all possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next, I have Mr. McLeod - Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have a problem with the motion of the first Tuesday in October. I am okay with that. I do have a question on eliminating the November date. I am not sure if this is the forum to ask it or a concern. We had the November date. Is this going to limit our ability if our election is concurrent with the federal election again? Is this going to limit our ability to have a November election so we don't over-cross with the federal election?
I think the last time we had our election on November 23rd because the federal election was going on at the same time. I am just curious as to whether or not this is going to limit our ability to do that, or can we just come forward an amendment in the House or a motion in the House to change it? I think we did that the last time. I am just concerned whether this limits our ability or not. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. I will allow the chair to respond if he would like to. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to be able to respond to my honourable colleague from Inuvik Twin Lakes. I am happy to try to respond. The effect of this motion would be to delete the provision in the existing Elections Act to move our Territorial election into November if there is a federal election around the same time. Yes, to be clear and open about it, that is what the effect of this motion would be.
We had quite a discussion at committee about this. The Chief Electoral Officer in her report, as well, identified a number of problems with having our election that late in November. It wasn't just about candidates trying to campaign in the winter. She also identified problems with trying to get ballot boxes to some communities that time of year, making sure that people get home while it is still daylight. She identified a variety of issues. It wasn't just about candidates because I had one colleague of ours say, "Are we just doing this for the candidates?" No. It is not just about the candidates. It is also about making sure we can run good elections.
As a committee, we looked at this issue. We thought that, if we moved our election forward, it is maybe not as far as we would all like to try to avoid that overlap or potential overlap that could happen maybe every three or four elections. I may not get all the timing right here. We decided to try to move ours forward even so ours would fall before the federal fixed date. I understand it is not perfect. We thought about trying to move it forward even a bit further, but then we run into the harvest time and people wanting to get out on the land in the fall. We tried to get a compromise. The best that we could come up with was to move ourselves to a fixed date, the first Tuesday in October. I think that is a good compromise that I am hoping all Members can support. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I hope I did an okay explanation. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the explanation from the chair of the committee. If we are thinking of just moving ours forward just so we don't overlap, then I am pretty sure I can support that. I would also like to know if the chair would be willing to contact the Prime Minister of Canada and see if they can move their election date a little further back so we can have ours at the appointed time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
---Laughter
Thank you, Minister. The Minister is looking for commitment from the chair. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I might have to take a page out of my colleague's notebooks here and say, "No." Look, I know that the question was asked rather facetiously, and I do want to provide some assurance that this was an interesting debate at committee that we had more than one time. I think we tried to come up with a reasonable compromise. If I had any ability to influence Ottawa, I would probably be in Ottawa now rather than in Yellowknife. Thank you for that.
Is there anything further from committee? Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the discussion and debate we are having. I think it is important for the public, as well. Mr. Chair, this is the third motion, third recommendation from the committee. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended per recommendation 10 of the Chief Electoral Officer Report on the Administration of the 2015 Territorial General Election to reflect current practices of maintaining a permanent list of electors and further that the act be amended to remove references to identification of electors by gender. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. For the motion on the floor, motion is in order. To the motion. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate the committee on this work. I think it is very progressive that you are actually making the amendments to reflect the current beliefs around gender and inclusiveness, so just my appreciation to the committee for this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister Cochrane. To the motion. Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
The motion is carried. Thank you, committee. Mr. O'Reilly.
