Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Carried
Madam Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, I will present Bill 65, Builders Lien Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Notice of motion for the first reading of bills. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I will give notice that on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, I'll present Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Notice of motion for the first reading of bills. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I will give notice that on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, I will present Bill 67, An Act to Amend the Fire Prevention Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Notice of motion for the first reading of bills. Minister of ECE.
Madam Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022, I will present Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Daycare Act, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Madam Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Pursuant to the Rule 8.2(3), Bill 60, an Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act is deemed read for a first time and is now ready for second reading.
I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to deal with Bill 58 and Bill 59.
Mahsi, committee. We will take a short recess and resume with the first item. Mahsi.
SHORT RECESS
Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 58, An Act to amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act. I will ask the sponsor of the bill, the Member for Hay River South, to introduce the bill.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to provide opening remarks on Bill 58, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act. This law is usually changed in the last year of every Assembly to update MLAs' pay and benefits and the names and borders of the NWT'S election ridings. These changes were suggested by independent commissions appointed by this Assembly. The bill also makes changes to how complaints against MLAs are handled and who sits on the Assembly's board of management. It also makes it clear who the employees of the Legislative Assembly work for.
If approved, the changes to how complaints against MLAs are handled will start right away. The other changes will start at the beginning of the next Legislative Assembly.
MLA pay is cut by $4,000 a year. Members could earn this $4,000 back by serving as the Premier, Speaker, or a Minister, or by serving on one or more committees. Regular Members who choose not to sit on any committees will be paid $4,000 less each year.
The transition allowance that Members get when they leave office is not changed. These changes will start after the next election.
The name of the Deh Cho riding is changed to Dehcho for the next election.
Right now, when a complaint about an MLA is made, the Assembly's Integrity Commissioner can either dismiss it or send it to a public inquiry. Because a public inquiry can be expensive and take a lot of time, the bill gives the Integrity Commissioner two new options:
The Integrity Commissioner can try to resolve the complaint through mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution or decide that the Member has done something wrong and suggest a punishment to the Assembly without the need for a public inquiry.
Finally, the Integrity Commissioner will be able to fine a Member who does not fill out their conflict of interest paperwork on time each year.
These changes will start as soon as the bill is passed.
The Minister of Finance will automatically be one of the two Ministers who serve on the Assembly's board of management. If the Speaker can't make a meeting, the deputy speaker will no longer be called on to chair the meeting. Instead, the board will pick one if its Members who is at the meeting to chair it.
The bill makes it clear that the employees of the Legislative Assembly work for the Speaker, not the Premier or Minister of Finance. This is to make sure that the Legislative Assembly employees can help MLAs and committees do their jobs, which include monitoring and sometimes criticizing the work of Cabinet and Ministers.
Finally, the bill replaces some outdated words and phrases with new ones that are easier to understand, without changing what they mean. In other words, they are housekeeping changes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This concludes my opening remarks on Bill 58. I am pleased to hear comments and to respond to any questions from committee. Thank you.
Mahsi. Member for Hay River South, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Member for Hay River South, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Stephen Flanagan, legislative division, Department of Justice; and, to my right is Tim Mercer, clerk of the Legislative Assembly.
Mahsi. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 58, An Act to amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act. Mr. Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm supportive of this legislation except for perhaps one section, which I'll comment to when we get there. But I wanted to talk about what I'm happy with the changes made to the Integrity Commissioner, and I just want to kind of summarize them for the public's notice.
So we used to have a process where when a complaint was referred to the Integrity Commissioner, and there's been a few this Assembly, he was forced to either, you know, find that there was grounds and order a public hearing, which we had and which cost us a few hundred thousand dollars and was very lengthy and complicated, or dismiss the complaint. There was kind of no middle ground, and I think many of us and the public and lots of people would have liked some sort of offramp. And so now we've amended it to give our Integrity Commissioner a few options. You know, he can refer the matter to some sort of alternative dispute resolution if that is appropriate; he can still order that public hearing if there are more facts and it's warranted; or he can right away, you know, after conducting an investigation, come out with a recommended penalty; or dismiss the complaint. So I think, you know, this is the way it's done in many other, if not all, jurisdictions, and I think giving that Integrity Commissioner a bit more authority of how to deal with complaints is a good step and is something I wish we had during this Assembly. But it's a good change. So I'm supportive of that. And I would like to thank all of our Members for the work that has gone into making these changes. Thank you.
Mahsi, Mr. Johnson. Are there any further comments? No more questions from the Member? Any further comments from committee?
Seeing none, does committee agree that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
Agreed. Can we proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Agreed? Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. I will call the clauses in groups. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.
Clause 1, does committee agree?
---Clauses 1 through 28 inclusive approved
Clause 29, does committee agree? Mr. Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I actually oh 29, sorry.
Yes, you may proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wasn't aware 29 would be in here. This is the clause that is now changing all Members to be before they can sit in this House instead of swearing allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors must now swear allegiance to His Majesty Charles III, King of Canada, his heirs and successors.
As I've stated before, I think this is an outdated oath and if people want to serve their government without swearing oath to the heirs and successors of our King, they should be able to do so. I will not be in support of this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi. Did the Member for Hay River South have any comments on this?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will take that as a comment from the Member. Thank you.
Okay. Mr. O'Reilly.
Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. In my first term, or last Assembly, I really didn't want to have to do this either. But it's actually enshrined in the Constitution of Canada, and it's not something that we can necessarily change ourselves unfortunately. But there are some Quebec members of their national assembly that are refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the King. And it's going to be very interesting to see what happens with that because, as I understand it, the Quebec legislature can still somehow allow them to sit in the chamber, even if they haven't sworn this oath of allegiance.
But, yeah, one of the things that we did do in the last Assembly, and I guess I take some credit for that, is we did add in the Legislative Assembly Executive Council Act a requirement for an oath of loyalty, I think it's called, to people of the Northwest Territories and the treaties, to help I think kind of counterbalance this. And so that's what Members do now. And, yeah, I still have a lot of issues with this one, but I don't think there's much we can do in this House about it right now, unless we want to make Canada a republic, and that's where I would go. But thanks, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Mr. O'Reilly. Clause 29, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed? Yeah, so we're good with it.
Agreed.
Clause 30, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 31, does committee agree?
