Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "NWT Small Communities Employment Strategy." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Lands.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Section 28 of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following document entitled "Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board 2018-2019 Fiscal Year Budget." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Guideline for Hazardous Waste Management, Revised October 2017;" and "Guideline for the Management of Waste Lead and Lead Paint, Revised October 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Section 28 of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following document entitled "2018-19 Health and Social Services Authority Budgets;" and, pursuant to Section 32(2) of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the following document entitled "Annual Report 2016-2017: Tlicho Community Services Agency." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Securities Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
Bill 13 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 15, Document Formalization, Service and Notice Reform Statute Law Amendment Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
Bill 15 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Justice.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 14, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2018, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize for the order.
Okay. The last motion was Bill 15, apparently. Just for the record, Bill 15 was recorded and voted on. I will do it just for the record, as well. Previous motion was Bill 15. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed. Motion carried, Bill 15.
Now we have Bill 14 before us for first reading of bills. Bill 14 is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
I am sure the Minister has the list, too. Masi. First reading of bills. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Social Assistance Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
Bill 16 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
Bill 17 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Cities, Towns and Villages Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. The motion is non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
---Carried
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act. Thank you, Mr. Chairman
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We should dispense with this fairly quickly, so we will forego our usual recess and continue with the bill. Members will find a copy of the bill in the grey binders by your feet. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister Sebert.
Thank you. I am pleased to be here today to discuss Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act.
I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Development for the review of this bill and for the constructive feedback they have provided.
Bill 5 is the result of extensive discussions between the City of Yellowknife and the Department of Justice regarding the issuance and enforcement of parking tickets. The Summary Conviction Procedures Act was last amended in 2010 to create efficiencies by allowing for a conviction to be entered if the accused does not show up for their court appearance. The City of Yellowknife has since that time indicated interest in taking on responsibility for the development and implementation of its own parking offence regime.
Bill 5 addresses this request and provides an amendment whereby the Summary Conviction Procedures Act does not apply to parking offences if a municipality has developed an administrative penalty regime of its own.
The amendment will give municipalities in the Northwest Territories the option to draft bylaws and establish their own administrative scheme for parking tickets if and when they wish to. The status quo will be maintained for those municipalities that do not establish their own regimes. The amendment is expected to significantly reduce demand for parking ticket matters on Justice of the Peace Court and the related provision of sheriff services. This, in turn, will provide greater access to justice by allowing Justice of the Peace Court time to be used for other non-parking-related matters.
I would be pleased to answer any questions that the committee may have regarding Bill 5. Thank you.
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. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee has nothing to add at this time and look forward to the clause-by-clause review of Bill 5. However, other Members may wish to have comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?
I think so.
Thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please take your seat at the witness table. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses to the House.
Yes, thank you. On my left is Mike Reddy, and on my right is Roger Shepard. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. We will open the floor to general comments. Do we have general comments? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I was very glad to see that the Minister, in his opening remarks, referred to the extensive discussions that have taken place between the City of Yellowknife and the Department of Justice over this bill. This is something that was talked about when I was on city council between 1997 and 2006. This has taken over 12 years to finally end up here in the Legislative Assembly. I don't understand why there is such a backlog of these sorts of things to help our local governments. I am glad that it is here, but we have to start to address the other backlogs that are still there. I do support this bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Next, Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a very welcome amendment to the Summary Conviction Procedures Act. The Minister, in his opening comments, mentioned that this amendment is expected to significantly reduce demand for parking ticket matters on Justice of the Peace court and related provision of sheriff services. I can attest to that, as a former deputy sheriff who has spent many long hours waiting for parking ticket matters to be resolved and seeing no one from the general public show up to attend on their trial matters. It is clearly a system that is antiquated. This brings us forward, and it allows more flexibility to the City of Yellowknife, less time for my former colleagues in Justice of the Peace Court, and a more expedient system to resolve parking matters.
This is an example of government moving forward in the right direction and addressing a very serious problem that affects our municipalities. I welcome the amendment, and I am pleased to support it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Seeing nothing further, we will proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill. We will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses.
Committee, please turn to page 1 of the bill. I will call out the clause number, and if committee agrees to the clause, please respond accordingly. Clause 1.
