Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. There are 25 clauses in the bill. We will consider the clauses in groups. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. Clauses 1 to 5. Does committee agree?
---Clauses1 through 25 inclusive approved
Agreed. Thank you. We will now return to the bill number and title. Bill 56, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that Bill 56 is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you. Bill 56 is now ready for third reading. Does committee that this concludes our consideration of Bill 56?
Agreed.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Thank you, committee. Committee Report 28-18(3), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Review of Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act. I will go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for any opening comments. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act, was referred to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment on October 29, 2019. On February 26, 2020, the committee was granted an extension to continue its review.
The committee sent letters inviting input from an extensive list of stakeholders, including municipal and Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories, as well as a number of non-governmental organizations and stakeholders. A public hearing was held in Yellowknife on February 12, 2019. The committee thanks everyone who attended these meetings or provided written submissions sharing their views on Bill 25.
The shared nature of the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission between two jurisdictions, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, gives rise to a unique situation. Two distinct and sovereign legislatures are concurrently considering amendments to two pieces of mirrored legislation to govern a single body that conducts business in both jurisdictions.
While the circumstances that have given rise to two different legislatures in two independently governed jurisdictions considering mirrored legislation are usual, they are not without precedent. The committee thanks the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut's Standing Committee on Legislation for its collaboration and cooperation as this bill was reviewed.
The committee concluded its review of Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act, on August 9, 2019 with a public clause-by-clause review held at the Legislative Assembly. Bill 25 was amended, with two clauses deleted by the committee and three motions moved making changes to other clauses. These amendments received concurrence from the Minister.
Mr. Chair, individual Members may have additional comments or questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. I will now open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 28-18(3), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the chair said, the committee spent a great deal of time working on this bill, and largely it was driven by the need to cooperate with our sister territory of Nunavut and work closely with their standing committee. That was a very productive relationship, and we were able to communicate some issues that both sides found with the bill.
However, the unique nature of this legislation where one body exists in two different jurisdictions and is governed by two acts, I think the expectation is that how it works in the NWT will be how it works in Nunavut, and that makes very much sense from an operational standpoint, but it did create challenges for the committee in reviewing this legislation. What I am speaking to today is less about Bill 25 and more about that unique nature of the WSCC legislation in the first place. My concern is that, should there ever be a time when the people of the Northwest Territories want their WSCC to operate fundamentally differently than Nunavut, we may not be in a position to offer those changes to employers, employees, and other people who want to see a different way of doing WSCC or workers' safety rules or governance structures, things like that.
So, until we either split the commission into two separate ones, such as they have done with the law society, for example, and a few others or adopt a model like the professional accountancy's legislation we passed in this House a while back, I don't think we are going to really reach the level of satisfaction that a lot of people have -- I hear concerns about the WSCC often, and how to address them becomes difficult if we are not able to adequately amend our own legislation if it won't result in the same changes in Nunavut. This is very much a live issue, and it's something that I think the 19th Assembly needs to think about because the state of affairs is going to continue to kind of trouble the expediency of legislative changes and also the independence of the Northwest Territories to bring about its own legislative changes.
With that being said, I think we have done a good job or the committee has done a good job with Bill 25, and largely some of the issues that the committee found with it have been resolved, so the process worked now. However, again, if there are some major changes sought by the public, my fear is that we will be unable to act on it if the current state of affairs remains consistent into the future. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next, we have Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I, too, would like to commend the chair of our committee in particular. This was an unusual bill for us to deal with, and I know that the chair did have to spend some extra time on this one. He did talk to the chair of the Nunavut standing committee on the phone about this bill to make sure that our efforts were coordinated and understood. Our staff behind the scenes were also working together on making sure that we understood what the concerns of Nunavut were with regard to this bill and so that we could try to harmonize our efforts in that way. I also want to commend the Minister, though, because there were some areas of disagreement initially on some areas of the bill, particularly with regard to workers' rights and their medical records. The way the bill had originally been drafted might lead to personal medical records that had nothing whatsoever to do with a Workers' Compensation claim being accessible to the commission and the commission's investigators and so on.
Working with the Minister, we were able to come up, I think, with a very good compromise, which actually solved the deletion of a couple of parts of the bill. I do want to commend the Minister and his staff for working really well with the committee on this bill, and I think we've arrived at a good place that achieves the kind of balance to make sure that the commission can carry out its work, and that workers' rights to privacy, and workers' rights in general are protected. I am quite pleased with where we ended up on this bill. I think this is how consensus government can and should work. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Any further questions? Seeing none, thank you. Committee, do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Committee Report 28-18(3) on the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Review of Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 28-18(3), report on the review of Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act. Thank you, Committee.
Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act. I will ask the Minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Act to introduce the bill. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to introduce Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers' Compensation Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for their review of this bill.
The purpose of the amendments to the Workers Compensation Act is to ensure certain provisions are in compliance with past court decisions. It further protects workers with mandatory reporting of industrial exposures, removes restrictions for workers who are seeking medical attention, modernizes the language for clarity and transparency, and aids the commission to ensure the sustainability of the Workers' Protection Fund. The amendments strike a balance between privacy and confidentiality of health information, and providing case management services to injured workers.
The Workers Compensation Act provides dual legislation to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Our counterparts in Nunavut are reviewing the legislation as Bill 8, and while there has been interaction between the Northwest Territories and Nunavut at the Minister and committee on a legislation level, Nunavut has not had input into the final version of Bill 25. Bill 8 is expected to be reviewed in the near future. The coming into force date of the amendments will need to be linked to the passing of Bill 8 by Nunavut.
Mr. Chair, that concludes my opening remarks, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 25. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Moses. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, the committee that considered the bill, for opening comments. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No additional comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister Moses, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and yes, I do.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Thank you. Minister Moses, can you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Miss Kim Collins Riffel the vice president of stakeholder services for WSCC, and on my left is Christina Brownlee, legislative counsel with Justice. I just would also say that I would like to thank Kim for the work that she has done just recently as the acting president for WSCC.
Thank you, Minister Moses. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 25. Seeing none, does committee agree that there are no further comments?
Agreed.
Thank you. Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you, committee. We will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. There are 25 clauses in the bill. We will consider the clauses in groups. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. Clauses 1 to 5, does committee agree?
---Clauses 1 through 38 inclusive approved
We will now return to the bill number and title. Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Workers Compensation Act. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed, thank you. Does committee agree that Bill 25 is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Agreed, thank you. Bill 25 is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 25?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister Moses, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to reiterate some of the comments that were made by committee when we just passed the committee report. I know it was last-minute that we did have to make some changes to the legislation, and when we do legislation that's cross-jurisdictional, such as with Nunavut, as one of the Members had mentioned earlier, we do have to come up with a protocol and process when we look at it, working with Nunavut especially because we have a lot of legislation that we have done with them in the past. I would like to thank the Members and the staff for the work that they have done getting to this point in our legislation as we near the end of the 18th Legislative Assembly.
Once again, I would like to thank Kim for stepping up and being the acting president for WSCC in the last little while here, and if I can just let Members know, up in the gallery, we do have our newly I wouldn't say "elected" but our new president, Debbie Malloy, if you wouldn't mind raising your hand. Welcome to the Northwest Territories and working with us at WSCC, along with Elise Scott, our senior advisor for the president's office, and I look forward to the work that you will be doing with our staff moving forward. With that, I just want to thank committee again and the staff for adjusting issues that needed to be adjusted, and moving into the next government, I do believe there needs to be a protocol and a process when we're looking at a legislation that affects across jurisdictions. With that, thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Thank you, committee. Committee Report 27-18(3), Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Review of Bill 39, Environmental Rights Act. I will go to the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for any opening comments. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have any opening comments at this point. I did share some brief comments when I announced the report to Committee of the Whole the other day. I will leave it to other Members if they have any opening comments at this point in time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Any further questions from committee? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. First off, I have a confession to make. I am passionate about this bill. This is the first time that the Environmental Rights Act has been through a review in 29 years. There have only been four requests under the act. It is not very well used; I don't think it's terribly well promoted. Of the four requests, there has only ever been one investigation carried out. I helped make that request with a friend, Chris O'Brien, about emissions from the Giant Mine.
Because this area of environmental rights is evolving over time, and certainly a number of other jurisdictions have adopted environmental rights right into the constitution, 149 of 193 countries have done that. Unfortunately, the bill that we have before us is really only making some minor improvements to what we have in place.
I will say that it does extend the basis for investigations, court actions, to acts of omissions, but there is now a significant harm test. You have to show that something has significant effects on the environment before an investigation or a court action might be permitted. There is to be a State of the Environment Report and a statement of environmental values. Those are improvements, but it's not a rights-based or obligation-based approach.
This really doesn't even deliver on the promises that were made by the department during the public consultations. What was promised were things like an environmental registry, a method for the public to propose policies, programs, agreements, initiatives, and a period for public comment on these things, and in some cases, even a response from the department. There was to be a definition of the right to a healthy environment, public trust was to be defined, and an obligation placed on our government to basically take care of the environment. There is to be dispute resolution incorporated into the bill, and investigations would initially be carried out by inspectors.
There was a lot more promise than what has been delivered in the bill. Committee did look at this and tried to find some ways to make some improvements in areas that we could, and I am pleased to say that most of the recommendations from committee have been incorporated into the bill. Those do include things like how to better define some criteria that can be considered in terms of defining significance, some principles that can help the Executive Council in drafting the statement of environmental values. These are well-accepted environmental principles. The statement of environmental values is to go through a public review now, similar to that that was can contemplated for the state of the environment reports. There have been some improvements made to the bill. There are still some areas that I would recommend some further improvements on.
Although they didn't receive committee support, I brought them to the floor of the House. I also indicated my willingness to work with the Minister and the department on further improvements, and I look forward to discussing those a little later when we get to the bill itself, Mr. Chair. I think that it is important for the public to know that we did receive significant amount of public concerns, submissions around how to improve this, and committee has done its best to try to do that within the scope of the bill that is before us. I look forward to further opportunities to improve this bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Any further questions, committee? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have some motions. I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources undertake a public awareness campaign of the Environmental Rights Act, including plain language materials on how the public can avail themselves of the various protections and provisions of the act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. The motion is on the floor and is being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Earlier in my opening comments, I mentioned that this is not a terribly well-used piece of legislation: four requests in 29 years, only one of which resulted in an investigation. I think that it is important that we give citizens tools to help protect the environment. This bill will help improve that, but we also have to do, I think, a much better job in communicating what sort of rights citizens have under the Environmental Rights Act and promote those rights and how people can follow up on them, whether it's requests for investigations, taking action themselves through the court system.
There are a number of things that people can do and follow up. They can be engaged and involved in the preparation of the statement of environmental values, review the State of the Environment Report. Hopefully, at some point in the future, we may have an environmental registry. This motion will ensure that the department, hopefully, will take a stronger role in promoting what is in the bill and the environmental rights that it creates so that people can exercise those rights. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed?
---Carried
Mr. Vanthuyne.
