Masi. Tabling of documents.
Pursuant to Section 21(3) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, I hereby table the Legislative Assembly Board of Management Record of Decision 285-18-2019 for Amendment to Indemnities and Allowances and Expenses Regulations.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that, on Wednesday, June 5, 2019, I will move that Bill 58, Justice Administration Statutes Amendment Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that, notwithstanding rule 4, when this House adjourns on May 30, 2019, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, June 4, 2019, and further, that, at any time prior to June 4, 2019, if the Speaker is satisfied after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice, and thereupon, the House shall meet at that time stated in such notice and transact its business as it has been duly adjourned to that time. Mahsi.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 54, Standard Interest Rates Statutes 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?
---Carried
Bill 54 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 55, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 1, 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?
---Carried
Bill 55 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 56, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2, 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?
---Carried
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 Committee Report 15-18(3), Report on the Review of Bill 30, an Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, and Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. I will ring the bells in 10 minutes. Until then, we are in recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Committee Report 15-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act. I will go to the chair of the committee for opening comments. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Government Operations concluded its review of Bill 30 during the previous sitting of the Legislative Assembly and provided a substantive report on the record there. We discussed a number of important areas of necessary changes to the Human Rights Commission to move it to more of a restorative model that is less adversarial and requires less precise procedural and legal knowledge to participate in its proceedings. These changes greatly modernize and update the structure, and committee supported them fully.
There were a few areas of the bill that committee felt very strongly needed some tweaks, and importantly, during our public consultations on the bill, Members noted that members of the public were quite interested in seeing stronger protections for genetic discrimination put into the bill, which was attempted to be moved during the clause-by-clause review and was not concurred with by the government. The Minister provided lengthy reasons for that at the time.
We will be considering the bill later in these proceedings, so I won't mention anything further on that point, but I do think that this is good legislation, it is much-needed legislation, and it is primarily driven by the review that was done by the Human Rights Commission and will greatly serve to enhance their ability to protect, promote, and sustain the fundamental human rights afforded to the citizens of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Are there any general comments on the committee report? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. This is, again, I think, a good piece of work, and I want to applaud the work that the Minister did to bring the bill before the House. This is the first time that I think it has gone through a comprehensive review. The Human Rights Commission itself was behind many of the changes in shifting the system more to a restorative approach, which I think is a good thing, but also clarifying some roles and responsibilities so that our citizens can better access their human rights as well.
I support many of the changes that were made to the bill. I think that there is one big outstanding issue that, of course, we are going to discuss, but good work on the part of the committee, the Human Rights Commission, and the Minister to work together to get the bill to where it is before us today. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Any further general comments on the report? Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Human Rights Commission develop an evaluation framework for assessing the efficacy of moving to a restorative process, which includes in its methodology a gender-based analysis and an assessment of the impacts on Indigenous people, and further, that the findings of this review be tabled in the Legislative Assembly in the first sitting following April 1, 2021, at which time the amendments to the Human Rights Act made by Bill 30 will be fully implemented. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. There is a motion on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a peculiar motion in our proceedings as it makes a recommendation, not to government, but to a statutory body, the Human Rights Commission. Committee felt that this was an appropriate way to address a concern that we heard around ensuring that this process was meeting its targets.
Although we are fully confident that the Human Rights Commission is going to be reporting on this in its annual statutory reports, this just gives a very clear indication of what we heard and what we feel would be effective for the commission in evaluating the efficacy of the restorative process that they have laid out. Hopefully, a future Assembly can take that report and see what has happened and provide other comments and feedback at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. To the motion. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Cabinet will be abstaining on this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Seeing nothing further, I will put the question to committee.
Question.
All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Committee, do you agree that this concludes our consideration of Committee Report 15-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. This concludes our consideration of Committee Report 15-18(3). Committee, we have agreed to next consider Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act. I will give everyone a moment to get your grey binders out. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister Sebert.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to discuss Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act.
I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Government Operations for their review of this bill and for the constructive feedback that they have provided. A number of motions were made in committee, and I am pleased that the bill has improved as a result.
Bill 30 amends the Human Rights Act to improve the delivery of human rights services and enhance the protection of human rights in the Northwest Territories. The amendments arise from recommendations by the Human Rights Commission's comprehensive review team, which brought together constitutional and human rights experts to review the NWT Human Rights Act on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.
Specifically, the amendments proposed fall under four major themes: first, valuing and incorporating a restorative approach throughout the human rights system, and encouraging early resolution where possible; second, improving efficiency in operations by consolidating the commission and the director functions into one single agency, the Human Rights Commission; third, emphasizing the commission's responsibility to protect and assure the public interest through the identification of systemic discrimination and the application of broader systemic remedies; and fourth, affirming the rights of transgender and other gender diverse persons.
The bill will also make a number of non-substantive miscellaneous amendments to improve the clarity and readability of specific provisions of the act.
I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 30.
Thank you, Minister. I will turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government operations which considered the bill for any opening remarks. There are no opening remarks from the chair. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, I would.
Thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right is Mark Aitken, assistant deputy minister, Department of Justice. To my left is Kelly McLaughlin, legislative counsel, Legislation Division, Department of Justice.
