Thank you, Minister. Pursuant to Rule 8.2(3), Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, is deemed read for the first time and is now ready for second reading.
First reading of bills. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 67, An Act to Amend the Fire Prevention Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Pursuant to Rule 8.2(3), Bill 67, An Act to Amend the Fire Prevention Act, is deemed read a first time and is now ready for second reading.
First reading of bills. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Madam Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Daycare Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Pursuant to Rule 8.2(3), Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Daycare Act, is deemed read a first time and is now ready for second reading.
First reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Madam Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 69, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Pursuant to Rule 8.2(3), Bill 69, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, is deemed read a first time and is now ready for second reading.
First reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Madam Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 70, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Pursuant to Rule 8.2(3), Bill 70, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operation Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, is deemed read a first time and is now ready for second reading.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Great Slave, that Bill 61, An Act to Amend the Ombud Act, be read for a second time.
The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Yellowknife North.
Madam Speaker, this Bill makes several amendments to the Ombud Act in order to
Expand the list of authorities that fall within the mandate of the Ombud;
Clarify the mandate of the Ombud;
Allow the Ombud to investigate complaints dating back to April 1st, 1999; and,
Provide additional notice requirements, including to Indigenous governments.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. To the principle of the bill. Government House Leader.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Cabinet will be abstaining from this vote. I have looked at the bill; there's nothing objectionable in there but we need to give it due consideration. There's work that needs to be done and so we will do that work. But we're not going to stand in the way of this from proceeding. Thank you.
Thank you. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Carried
Second reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Madam Speaker, I move seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 62, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, No. 2, be read for the second time.
This bill makes a number of amendments to the Act to update the Act, in light of recent Income Tax Act of Canada amendments, by the following:
Allowing the communication of information between governments of the Northwest Territories and Canada;
Removing federally repealed provisions;
Making changes respecting various COVID19 relief measures;
Making the act conform with the CanadaNorthwest Territories tax collection agreement;
Including a reference to allow or disallow deductions in calculating the federal foreign tax credit; and,
Removing ambiguity respecting tax on split income for multijurisdictional tax filers.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Carried
Second reading of bills. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, be read for the second time.
This bill amends the Official Languages Act to update the preamble to
Recognize the legacy of colonialism on Indigenous languages in the Northwest Territories and reaffirm the commitment of the government to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
Clarify and strengthen the role of the Languages Commissioner;
Merge the Official Languages Board and Aboriginal Languages Revitalization Board into the Official Languages Board to improve efficiency and provide for an updated role;
Revise the time period for statutory reviews of the act from every five years to within the first two years of every second Legislative Assembly beginning in the 21st Legislative Assembly; and,
Update the act so as to be more inclusive, including through the use of "Indigenous" over "aboriginal" and the use of genderneutral language.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Yellowknife North.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Speaker. This bill comes out of some cooperative work and review that the Standing Committee on Government Operations has done of the Official Languages Act over the years, and this Act is long overdue for some changes. I'd like to thank the Minister for his work with committee to date.
I'll also just note committee is still currently in the process of a statutory review of the Official Languages Act. We are still welcome to take any submissions. You know, I think it was our hope when this Assembly first started that we would see a much larger overhaul of the Official Languages Act, as has been requested, but I'm happy to see these changes and to, you know, start the work and strengthen all the great work our official Languages Commissioner is doing. And there's a couple more steps to go in reviewing the bill, and committee's tabling their final review of the Official Languages Act as it now stands. But just thank committee and all of those who participated to date. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Carried
Second reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 69, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for infrastructure expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 20222023 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
---Carried
Second reading of bills. Minister of Finance.
Madam Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 70, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operation Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023 be read for the second time. This bill makes supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures of the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 20222023 fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Carried
I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, committee wishes to deal with Tabled Document 72319(2), the 20232024 Capital Estimates, and Committee Report 3719(2), Report on the Review of the 2022 Audit of Addictions Prevention and Recovery Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, committee. We will take a short recess and resume with the first item on our agenda. Mahsi.
SHORT RECESS
Committee, we have agreed to resume consideration of Tabled Document 72319(2), Capital Estimates 20232024. We have previously considered and deferred all departments. To begin our consideration, I'll go to the Minister of Finance for some opening comments. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have fairly brief comments today. I did want to, however, acknowledge that in this particular budget, as in all budgets, both the main operating budget as well as capital, in consensus government we have an opportunity to engage in discussions that are, I think, expected, and that makes it, hopefully, more cordial than what it might be if it were what is a traditional minority government in southern Canada, or other parts of Canada rather. And because we expect the process to occur, there's some formalities to it. That doesn't mean the process doesn't improve. And in my view, Mr. Chair, I do hope the public is aware and knows that both sides of this House work together when it's budget time. Again, both in capital and in mains. And both parties on both sides of the House are trying to improve the process as well as improve the budget documents in each event.
So what I wanted to note today is two things. Firstly, I want to make sure there's appropriate recognition given to MLAs, past and present, who have mentioned ways to improve the capital planning process. This capital plan did see a different way by which we went about structuring that plan and creating some change, putting the cap on there, increasing access to planning funds and planning processes. And, Mr. Chair, while certainly that was something that was well known and thought about from this side and from within the departments, it is also something that MLAs have asked for over the years and certainly in my discussions with them over the last three years. So I do want to acknowledge that those kind of changes don't happy unilaterally or without knowing what the tenor might be coming from the other side. So certainly want to acknowledge that to the extent that I believe that those are significant improvements, those improvements happened because we worked as a collective and because we have a good consensus government here.
The second comment on that same vein, Mr. Chair, is that the discussions that we had this time were also a little bit different. We were able to sit down looking at the you know, a little bit more broadly at what the government is doing. Those discussions were fruitful. They were helpful. And while I'm not making you know, traditionally I'll often make commitments or specific commitments now, I'm not doing that here but that's not to say there wasn't a significant exchange of ideas and paths forward. And certainly I do have some work that I know I have committed to doing in those discussions and will be taking that seriously. And I appreciate that the Members have brought those ideas now broadly. Again, this is really ideally how consensus government works. We have the opportunity to have these conversations, to know what's coming both in the capital budget but also in mains, which certainly is impacting the they impact one another. They depend on one another. So those conversations were fruitful. I'm grateful for them and looking forward to this kind of continued process of open discussion, dialogue, being challenged but also being able to act on one another's ideas. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mahsi, Minister of Finance. I'd like to thank you for recognizing the work of the Regular MLAs in the budget cycle and nice to have that mentioned. Mahsi.
Committee, do any Members have any general comments on the tabled document?
Seeing none, committee, we will now return to the deferred estimates beginning with the Legislative Assembly on page 14.
Legislative Assembly, 20232024 Capital Estimates, $200,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Does committee agree that consideration of the Legislative Assembly is now complete?
Agreed.
