Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Oh, yeah, okay. Sorry. Go back to the mover for closing. Member for Frame Lake
Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm going to try to choose my words carefully because I did hear some conciliatory words from the Minister of Finance. But I worked really, really hard to try to not end up where we did. And I'm really, really disappointed. You know, and with all due respect, this is not the way consensus government is supposed to work, and this is not the way that most of the work in this Assembly's actually gotten done. So that is that in itself is actually quite tragic, that it's been this divisive. And I really want the Minister and her department to think really carefully about what the lessons were from this and to really reach out and work with us moving forward. And I think I've heard the Minister say she's prepared to do that. You know, the 120 days, I asked the Minister to speed this up, get us a response as soon as you can. And then when I saw that response, Madam Chair, as I said, I've seen a lot of responses in my seven years, this is one of the most condescending, dismissive responses I've ever seen. That really hurts me. That hurts me a lot, because that's not the way this is supposed to work.
Okay, I think I've heard that the Minister's willing to look at revenue sharing. I don't think you can do it in regulations because the bill is drafted, the legislation is the way it's put together, there is no provision for revenue sharing. There's no provision for revenue sharing. You can't do it in regulations. So you're going to need to amend the bill. But when you reopen up that bill, I want you to work with us because we've got ideas. I tried to bring some of that forward before. It was rejected, but I want you to reach out and actually work with us this time. And that includes ideas about transparency, accountability, reporting, not just revenue sharing. But that is a big part of it. And I think we really need to try to find a way to treat all of our businesses, NGOs, and community governments fairer than what happened the first time around with this bill where you only talked to the large emitters. That's just not a way that our government should do business, period. So as much as you want to I want you to work with us, you also need to work with the public and not just the large emitters. So I don't know. I don't want to say anything that's going to get me in trouble, Madam Chair. So I think I'm going to stop there. But I think I've heard the Minister say some conciliatory words. That's good. But I really, really want her to work us with this time. And I want to get legislation passed before the end of this Assembly, and if that means bringing forward a bill in MayJune, she's got to do it. But you've got to work with us this time around, not like what you did with this bill, not like what happened in the 18th Assembly when I blew the whistle on the train wreck. It wasn't heated. That's why we're here. So okay. I've heard the conciliatory words from the Minister. I'm prepared to work together to get this done before the end of this Assembly. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. A recorded vote has been requested. All those in favour, please stand.
The Member for Frame Lake.
All those opposed, please stand.
The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Nahendeh. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Yellowknife Centre. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Kam Lake.
All those abstaining, please stand.
The Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Deh Cho. The Member for Thebacha.
The results of the recorded vote are: One in favour, 11 opposed, four abstentions. The motion is defeated. So to the appendix of the bill, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. The committee has agreed that Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act, is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister, and thank you to your witnesses. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses. And Members we're just going to take a five minute break.
SHORT RECESS
Committee, we've agreed to consider Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act. I will ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs to introduce the bill.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act.
The purpose of Bill 66 is to address issues that can be resolved through administrative and operational amendments without changing the overall intent of the Act. Bill 66 clarifies and modernizes certain definitions. It also gives the director of assessment greater authority in respect of first assessment orders, corrections to the rolls, and carrying out supplementary assessments. The bill updates provisions related to municipal boards of revision, the territorial boards of revision and the assessment appeal tribunal to extend terms of appointment, adjust decisionmaking timelines, allow for sole adjudication in certain circumstances and change the title of "secretary" to "registrar." The bill also gives municipal employees the ability to purchase property at public auction with the approval of the municipal council. In addition to these amendments, this bill makes several housekeeping amendments to genderneutralize language and fix nonsubstantive grammatical errors in the Act.
During the Standing Committee on Government Operations review of the bill, the Department worked with committee staff and the Department of Justice on three additional amendments to the bill. The Department is appreciative of the time committee took in reviewing the bill and proposing amendments. This concludes my opening remarks. I look forward to hearing comments from Members and answering any questions the Members may have on the bill. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
I do.
Thank you. Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. On my left is Jennifer Young, director of corporate affairs. On my close to me on the right is Laurie Fife, director of community governance. And in the far right is Christina Duffy, director of legislation, legislative division. Thank you, Madam Chair.
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 66. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 66, An Act to Amend the Property Assessment and Taxation Act, received second reading on November 3rd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review. Committee engaged with stakeholders and the public in its review of the bill. Committee held a public review on the bill on January 23rd, 2023, and received two written submissions.
Committee was able to use that feedback to seek amendments that take transparency into consideration. Committee was pleased to work with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs on these amendments.
On February 13th, 2023, the standing committee completed its clausebyclause review of the bill where it passed a motion to report Bill 66 as amended to the Legislative Assembly as ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole.
I would like to thank committee and the Minister and the staff for their work on review of Bill 66. Individual Members may have additional comments or questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 66. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Kind of seems like a lifetime ago but I actually served on city council in Yellowknife in 1997 to 2006, and I remember being at probably more than one conventions of the Northwest Territories Association of Communities where motions were passed, asking for changes to this piece of legislation. And so, you know, fast forward to what I can't even do the math anymore 20 years later, almost 20 years later, 25 years, whatever, and some of those changes are in this bill. And so I want to commend the department for getting around to those changes. And I you know, I think this Minister has found a way to light fires within his department, not literally, even though he's got that responsibility as well, but figuratively. And so I want to commend him for getting some legislation out of MACA, which we just didn't seem to be able to do in the 18th Assembly. And, you know, the Minister sat on this side of the House. So he well knows some of the concerns and issues that were raised in the House about the lack of anything ever happening at MACA. So that's good. But when are we going to get round two on path? When is that going to come? And, like, it probably is not going to happen in the lifetime of this Assembly, but what can we do to get that set up and ready for the next Assembly so that they're not sitting around twiddling their thumbs and waiting for MACA to do a little more and hoping that they get a Minister that's able to light the figurative fires. So where is phase two, and what can we do to get that going in the lifetime of this Assembly? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. So it will be in the 20th Assembly. We've already started doing the work. We've gone through legal. So we've done that work. Once we've done that, we're going to take that information to the MTAs, and then we will also be sharing that information with the Indigenous governments. So we are starting the work now, and by the time the 20th Assembly rolls in, we will have a good foundation moving forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. So I'm going to push this a little bit further. So can the Minister commit to get a legislative proposal for phase two to the Regular MLAs before the end of the life of this Assembly. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. Most likely we won't be able to. There's still a lot of work that we got to do before we get to that point. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I don't want to prolong this. I guess I would urge the Minister and the staff to try to find a way to get that done before the end of this Assembly. You know, legislative proposal, it doesn't have to be super detailed. Just tell us what you want to do in phase two and start talking to people now about it. So if you can do it before the end of the Assembly, please do it. Thanks, Madam Chair. That's all I got.
Thank you. Are there any further general comments? Oh, Minister, did you want to respond?
Yes. So I'd just like to clarify why we're not paused so we can get there. We have to find a lawyer that's an expert in this area. That's the challenge is to find somebody to do that right now. So if we find somebody and we're able to do, then we can get it going. But I'm being very realistic and response with this. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further general comments? Seeing none, can we proceed to a clausebyclause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill. I will call the clauses in groups of five. Clause 1 to 5, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clause 6 to 10, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clauses 11 to 15, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clauses 16 to 20, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clauses 21 to 25, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Clauses 26 to 28, does committee agree?
