I have to start over again now. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 61, An Act to Amend the Ombud Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 2nd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review.
The committee received eight written submissions and oral comments at a public review of this bill. Considering the valuable feedback received from stakeholders during the review period, the committee was pleased to see two proposed amendments concurred with by the sponsor of the bill at the committee's clausebyclause review.
As a result of the committee's review of Bill 61, the committee presented its report on Bill 61 to the Legislative Assembly on February 14th, 2023.
I would like to thank the committee for its work on the review of Bill 61. Individual members may have additional comments.
Thank you. I now open the floor to general comments on Bill 61. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations for their review of Bill 61 and the MLA for Yellowknife North for bringing the bill forward and his efforts. Given existing resources and focus on current legislative priorities for the 19th Legislative Assembly, the Department of Justice, which jointly administers the act with the Legislative Assembly, has not been able to undertake a policy analysis, the policy analysis that is necessary to fully understand the impacts of some of the proposed amendments in Bill 61, but had provided initial feedback to standing committee during the course of their review. The Department of Justice appreciates that some of the initial feedback that was provided to the bill was incorporated into a revised bill. Cabinet agrees that several of the provisions will improve the overall administration and readability of the Ombud Act. However, the impacts of some of the provisions proposed in the bill are not clear.
For example, Bill 61 will allow the ombud to investigate complaints about a wider range of public bodies by expanding the definition of "authority" and replacing the current schedule that lists these authorities. The bill will also expand the list of statutory officers that the ombud shall not investigate without the officers' agreement to include a commission and an adjudication panel.
The Department of Justice has not had the opportunity to undertake a detailed analysis of these amendments in order to completely understand the impacts they may have on the ombud’s investigation authority. The bill will also change the temporal jurisdiction of the ombud from 2016 to 1999, allowing the ombud to investigate complaints into matters that have arisen since April 1, 1999.
When Bill 20, Ombudsperson Act, was initially drafted, the temporal jurisdiction of the ombud did not extend before the commencement of the Act, which was consistent with similar legislation in other jurisdictions at the time. The temporal jurisdiction in Bill 20 was amended in response to feedback from the committee so that it was extended towards the beginning of the 18th Legislative Assembly, specifically January 1, 2016. Limitations on temporal jurisdiction are important for several reasons and the significant expansion of this jurisdiction in Bill 61 raises concerns in regard to the potential impact on resources resulting from this amendment.
The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to take the position that amending the act would have been most appropriate during the 20th Legislative Assembly given that the act is still relatively new. As the ombud continues to implement the act, it is expected that further insights will be gained as to what is working well and where improvements can be made.
Madam Chair, there is nothing egregious in this bill, but given that the department has not had an opportunity to do its due diligence, Cabinet will abstain from voting on the bill as a whole. But that said, I wish the Member good luck and I thank him for his efforts on this. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. First off, I guess this is one of the few times a Private Member's bill has actually come forward for consideration in Committee of the Whole, and so it is a historic event. And I think that Members, certainly on this side of the House, should consider and use Private Members' bills more often. There are some things that Cabinet is never going to get to, some things that they will not do, and that's why we have a consensus government so that Members on this side of the House can sometimes bring forward legislative initiatives, and that's the importance of Private Members' bills. So I guess I'm speaking a little bit from experience because I did have a Private Member's bill passed in the last Assembly, so and that was actually after encouragement from a couple of Members of Cabinet.
In any event, I do want to commend sincerely the initiative and work of the Member for Yellowknife North in bringing this forward as a Private Member's bill. In my view, what this bill really does is fix some of the problems with the Ombud Act that was some of these issues were identified in the last Assembly. The Minister who just spoke was actually on this side of the House and voted in favour of some of those amendments to try to fix the bill at that point. So it's kind of interesting to hear the changing of shoes or hats in this House on some of these issues, particularly on the scope of the ability of the ombud to reach back in time. And the ombud, you know, in the very first report identified this as a problem, her ability to go back in time to get a full understanding of some of the issues and complaints that were being brought forward to her attention and really impeded her ability to conduct a full investigation. So as I said, I think this just helps fix a number of problems that were already there with the bill, some of which arose from the way it was put together and drafted in the last Assembly.
I am a bit dismayed to hear the Minister say that the Department of Justice hasn't had time to do policy analysis around this bill. It's been with us now for months. Perhaps the people at Department of Justice have too much other work to do but a bit dismayed to say that, you know, they haven't had time to look at this. Some of these issues, as I say, have been around not just for months now, for years. So a bit dismayed to hear that but I'm pleased to hear that Cabinet is going to abstain, and I anticipate that all the Members on this side of the House will support this bill because it's in keeping with issues that were identified in the last Assembly and helps meet some of the issues that have been brought forward by the ombud to help improve the ability of her office to do that very important work on behalf of all of our constituents and residents of the NWT. So I'll definitely be supporting this bill. And, again, I want to sincerely thank the Member for Yellowknife North for all his work on this bill. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Are there any other general comments? Does committee agree that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
Can we proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. Clause 1, does committee agree?
---Clauses 1 through 11 inclusive approved
Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 61, An Act to Amend the Ombud Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 61, An Act to Amend the Ombud Act?
Agreed.
Thank you. Thank you, Member. Thank you to your witness. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witness from the Chamber.
Committee, we've agreed to consider Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act. I will ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to introduce the bill.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here today to present Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act. The Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories seeks to recognize, preserve, and enhance the use of Indigenous languages in the NWT, along with the two official languages of Canada. To do so, the act designates Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, and Tlicho as official languages in the NWT. The act requires a review of the provisions and operation of the act to be conducted by the Legislative Assembly or a committee of the Legislative Assembly every five years. The most recent review report was presented to the House earlier today, eight years after the previous report.
Without a recent report to inform potential legislative changes, Bill 63 proposes limited changes and is less ambitious than it would be had the statutory review requirement been met. Despite this, the department welcomed a set of initial recommendations from the standing committee for amendments to the act.
Based on standing committee's recommendations and the department's engagement with stakeholders and the public, ECE is seeking to amend the act to
Clarify and strengthen the role of the Languages Commissioner;
To merge and empower the languages board as a single unified board; and,
To emphasize the importance of language protection as a means of implementing the Articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
This concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.
. Thank you. Would the Minister like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, I would.
Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you. I have with me John MacDonald, deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. And Laura Jeffrey, legal counsel with the Department of Justice.
Thank you. I will now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, the committee that reviewed the bill, for any opening comments on Bill 63.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 2nd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review.
Committee engaged with stakeholders and the public in its review of this bill. The committee held a public review of the bill on January 18th, 2023, and received five submissions with stakeholders. On February 15th, 2023, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and completed its clausebyclause review of the bill.
Individual Members may have comments or questions. And in addition, I would like to thank the Minister for his close work together on getting this bill forward. Thank you.
I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 63. Does committee agree that there are no general comments?
Agreed.
Can we proceed to a clausebyclause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.
Clause 1, does committee agree?
---Clauses 1 through 15 inclusive approved
Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister. Thank you to your witnesses. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 20222023. These supplementary estimates propose a total increase of $24.044 million, comprised of the following items:
$27.75 million to provide funding for the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link Project;
$205,000 to increase the total project budget for the Land Tenure Optimization System; and,
A decrease of $4.886 million to adjust infrastructure project cash flows to realign the appropriations with the anticipated project schedules.
These estimates also propose the supplementary appropriations that will be offset by federal revenues, including:
$726,000 for fish processing equipment for the Hay River Fish Plant;
$158,000 for cost increases related to the Fort Simpson airfield electrical replacement project; and,
$91,000 for nurse call bells in Fort Simpson, to be included in the communications retrofit project.
That concludes my opening remarks. I would be happy to answer any questions that the Members might have.
Thank you, Minister. Do you wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, can you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, on my left I have Bill MacKay, who is the deputy minister of Finance. And on my right Kristal Melanson, director of management board secretariat.
Thank you. Welcome. I will now open the floor for general comments. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Can someone tell me what the opening supplement the supplementary reserve was for the infrastructure side in 20222023. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there are supplementary reserves are on the operations side. There aren't supplementary reserves for infrastructure sups. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Sorry, thanks. Okay, so as a result of this supplementary appropriation, are we going to be in a does this create are we going what's the debt that's created through this supplementary appropriation? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, at this point the net impact doesn't have us going into any new debt on this one actually, Madam Chair, sorry, let me I think I'm looking at the wrong page. Let me direct that to the deputy minister.
Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the total impact to be $31,758,000. So we'll be spending more than what was budgeted under the capital plan. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks. Maybe I'm really mistaken, but I understood that we actually did have a reserve on the infrastructure side. Can I just confirm that with the Minister. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
