Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Norn.
Marsi cho, Mr. Chair. When we did some of our committee deliberations and we heard some of the feedback from the public, one thing that was brought up was having some on-call interpreters. I think it's really important that we have a good pool to draw from and also make sure that the right training is provided, have those supports in place. I just thought I would speak to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
---Carried
Member for Frame Lake.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Speaker and Board of Management develop a rights-based official languages policy for the Legislative Assembly and that the policy come into effect prior to the end of this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. The idea behind this motion is that we do need to have a policy moving forward that better recognizes and incorporates the use of all of the official languages in the way that we conduct our work and business here in the Assembly. There are a number of suggestions in the report itself, and I am not going to go over those, but it does involve things like making sure that we have backup interpreters on call and that there is basically a plan, step-wise, for improvement of the use of official languages across all of the work that we do here at the Legislative Assembly. I think that is a really key thing. I hate to put all of this on the Board of Management. They have got a lot of other work on their plates, of course, but we do need to develop a policy in this area. I think what we have also recommended is that this come back to us before the end of this Assembly so that we can keep moving this in the right direction. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the suggestions made on pages 10 and 11 of Committee Report 8-19(2) be investigated by the Office of the Speaker, the Board of Management, and the Office of the Clerk in an effort to make immediate improvements in the provision of official languages services; and further, if any of these suggestions are found to not be feasible at present, a plan to realize these outcomes be included in the official languages policy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am not going to read what is on pages 10 and 11, but just to refresh Members' memory and for those who may be listening, there are some immediate changes that we can make. We have started to do some of this, where we try to make sure that we have interpretation available for the entire sitting day, that there are at least a couple of interpreters available; we are going to look at including statistics around use of official languages in the House in future annual reports from the Legislative Assembly, making sure that some of our basic documents are made available in all of the official languages, things like the votes and proceedings, the orders of the day, that kind of thing, and that we also consider upgrading our audio and video equipment to make sure that we can broadcast and stream all of the official languages on an ongoing basis. Those are the sorts of things that this recommendation is really aimed at improving, some immediate operational changes to help us improve the use of official languages right away. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
---Carried
Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Standing Committee on Government Operations consider the issues of interpreter and translator training and accreditation and the possibility of a future Government of the Northwest Territories languages bureau in the context of its review of the Official Languages Act. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Those of us who have been around for a while may remember when we used to have a languages bureau. It was quite an operation. There were probably 40, 50 staff there who were available and doing work in all of the official languages and developing curriculum, all kinds of great work. Unfortunately, we do not have that capacity anymore, or it's still there perhaps in different forms. However, that issue was raised with us as well as the need for better interpreter training and accreditation. That was raised to us in the written submissions, verbal submissions, and it was really something kind of beyond the scope of the work of the rules and procedures committee, but certainly perfectly within the purview of the government operations committee when they conduct their review of the Official Languages Act.
We felt it important that we don't lose those issues, concerns, that were raised with us. They are captured in the report, and what this motion will do is make sure that they are given to the government operations committee to carefully consider. People, of course, will be welcome to make their own presentations to that committee at the appropriate time. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Mr. Lafferty.
Masi, Mr. Chair. I, too, would like to emphasize the importance of having translator training and accreditation for up-and-coming future governments. The committee has heard from various stakeholders, interpreters, and language specialists. Even in this House, on numerous occasions, I have raised the importance of having qualified people to be trained, similar to the language bureau that Mr. O'Reilly was referring to. It was a big machine back then. We don't have that right now, unfortunately, but as we move forward, I would like to see more interpreters qualified that we can pick from, as Mr. Norn alluded to, a list of interpreters lined up. I would like to, again, re-emphasize the high importance of having trained interpreters and translators so that we can have qualified people in this building in as many official languages as possible.
Mr. Chair, in closing, this is one of the recommendations that was brought forward by some of the interpreters, as well. I attended last week's language training, as well. There, again, it was stressed by language specialists that we need qualified, trained language interpreters and translators. The message is out there. It's real. Government needs to start listening. This is a real issue. We are losing our language. The Gwich'in are losing our language. Inuvialuktun are losing their language, big time. Fortunately, the Tlicho language is strong, but we have a young generation who do not speak our language. Now is the time to get our act together as government and reinforce the importance of investing in our languages. This will be a continuation of our push, and I am glad that the report reflects that. Masi, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Thank you, committee. Do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Committee Report 8-19(2)?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 8-19(2), Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Motion 5-19(2), Referral of Point of Privilege Raised by Member for Monfwi on March 10, 2020. Mr. Norn.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.
There is a motion on the floor to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress.
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 286-19(2), Main Estimates 2021-2022, and Committee Report 8-19(2), Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on Motion 5-19(2), Referral of Point of Privilege Raised by Member for Monfwi on March 10, 2020, and would like to report progress with nine motions carried, that consideration of Committee Report 8-19(2) is concluded, that consideration of Tabled Document 286-19(2) is concluded, and that the House concur those estimates and that an appropriation bill based thereon be introduced without delay, and Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Do we have a seconder? Member for Nunakput. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Employment Standards Act, be read for the third time, and Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I do have some remarks to make on this bill. It proposes two sets of changes to the Employment Standards Act: unpaid emergency leave is created, and then there are waivers for group termination advance notice requirements. The Employment Standards Act is a significant legislation that tries to balance workers' rights versus employers' interests. I want to thank the Standing Committee on Social Development for their work. They found a better balance by clarifying the process for employers to seek waivers from group termination notice requirements. They also clarified the process that will be used. The notice of decision to reduce or eliminate group termination notice now has to be posted in a workplace and given to each employee.
I still have major concerns, though, with this bill. In terms of the timing, I suggested to the former Minister of Justice an omnibus, a COVID bill, to deal with issues such as these, and I did that back in April of 2020, but it never really happened. This bill only came forward in November of 2020, only after a federal requirement for emergency leave as part of the Safe Restart Agreement, and on March 12, the Minister said that the bill, I'll just use his words, followed correspondence from "an industry lobbyist group." This bill, in my view, took too long to be developed and was not really, perhaps, at our own initiative. The Minister admitted that there was no public consultation in creating this bill, which I and others expect when making changes to the Employment Standards Act.
The substantive problems with the bill, I want to speak to those, Mr. Speaker. The emergency leave is unpaid. I don't think this creates an incentive to encourage self-isolation. We heard in debate that some other jurisdictions actually even have more generous sick leave provisions in their Employment Standards Act, like the Yukon. I think that there should have been more effort to look at how to make emergency leave paid. That could have been done through some sort of arrangement or split among the federal government, perhaps, GNWT, employers, and even employees, but I don't think that work was done, either.
I want to speak now to the waivers from group termination notice requirements. I think the way that it has been presented in the bill is quite problematic. I couldn't even get the Minister to admit a couple of weeks ago that workers will potentially lose weeks of paid employment if this bill passes, and I certainly expect that it will. This really shifts the burden from employers to employees, and I don't think that that's fair when it comes to group terminations. There may be some situations where this may be warranted, but this bill doesn't provide enough guidance or even strike the right kind of balance between employees' and employers' interests. These changes are not the same as some other jurisdictions, how they have decided to try to handle group termination notices. In the federal legislation, there's a mediated process where people try to sit down and look at ways of avoiding group terminations. We don't have that with this legislation.
The process for waivers is still not clear. The onus should be on the employer, and I think that should be done through a simple application process. As the bill stands now, the onus is on the employment standards officer. We downloaded that responsibility onto the employment standards officer. Number one, they have to figure out whether an employer is actually providing proper notice, and if not, then they have to figure out whether the employer meets the requirements for a waiver. I believe that this will cause unnecessary delays.
For all these reasons, this bill does not provide for adequate protection of workers' rights and the public interest, the balance is tipped too far in favour of employers, and I will not be supporting it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to suggest that, if anyone would like to know how the proceedings on this bill went, they check back through the record. I do not agree with my colleague's statements, and I will be supporting this bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Hay River North; the Member for Great Slave; the Member for Kam Lake; the Member for Deh Cho; the Member for Yellowknife North; the Member for Monfwi; the Member for Nahendeh; the Member for Sahtu; the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake; the Member for Hay River South; the Member for Thebacha; the Member for Nunakput; the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh; the Member for Yellowknife South; the Member for Range Lake; the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
All those opposed, please rise.
The Member for Frame Lake.
All those abstaining, please rise. The results of the recorded vote: 16 in favour, one opposed, zero abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 20 has had third reading. Third reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
