Debates of March 30, 2023 (day 153)

Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 81 has had second reading.

Carried

Second reading of bills. Minister responsible for Justice.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that Bill 82, Legal Profession Act, be read for the second time.

This bill repeals and replaces the Legal Profession Act. The current Act is largely based on the 1976 Ordinance. It has been amended over time but there are parts of it that are antiquated and that have been overtaken by more modern legislation. In addition, the current Act does not reflect contemporary developments in the selfregulation of the legal profession across Canada.

The Law Society established a review committee to examine these developments and it came up with a series of recommendations in 2019. This bill integrates these recommendations into a new Act.

Minor errors and inconsistencies are also addressed along with the use of diversityinclusive language. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 82 has had second reading.

Carried

Second reading of bills. Minister responsible for Finance.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that Bill 83, Liquor Act, be read for the second time.

This bill repeals and replaces the Liquor Act, SNWT 2007, c.15 to make significant changes and updates, including to

Provide for the appointment of a registrar with responsibility for liquor licensing matters including the issuance, renewal, transfer, suspension and cancellation of licenses;

Allow for the creation of new classes of liquor licenses in regulations;

Allow for the creation of classes of retail vendors in regulations;

Allow for the imposition of monetary penalties by a newly appointed chief inspector;

Repeal the existing liquor licensing board with a liquor appeals board to hear appeals of decisions of the registrar and the chief inspector;

Define a single community authority for the purposes of community control matters;

Create new mechanisms for community control over liquor and provide certain protections for operating businesses;

Make changes to the length of temporary prohibition orders, their associated timelines and requirements;

Necessary updates to inspection, investigation and search and seizure provisions;

Remove mandatory minimum penalties; and,

Modernize language, including by using genderneutral pronouns.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 83 has had second reading.

Carried

Second reading of bills. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for the Sahtu, that Bill 84, An Act to Amend the Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation Act, be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation to

Change the name of the act to the Prosper NWT Act;

Continue the Northwest Territories Business Development and Investment Corporation as Prosper NWT;

Clarify when a corporation will be considered a subsidiary of Prosper NWT for the purposes of the act;

Provide the Board with the authority to modify Prosper NWT's nonfinancial support programs with the approval of the Minister;

Provide Prosper NWT with the authority to provide nonfinancial support to business enterprises and members of the public outside of established programs;

Provide Prosper NWT with the authority to provide financial support to business enterprises and subsidiaries;

Provide the board with the authority to require parties to confirm their compliance with agreements they have entered into with Prosper NWT;

Clarify conflict of interest provisions by adding the concept of a controlling interest;

Clarify that persons are related under the Act if they are related for the purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada);

Permit Prosper NWT, subject to certain limitations, to use a portion of its cash on hand for the purpose of carrying on its business;

Remove the requirement that the programs established under the act be periodically reviewed by the Minister;

Modernize language, including using genderneutral pronouns; and,

Correct inconsistencies and errors identified in the act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 84 has had second reading.

Carried

Second reading of bills. Madam Premier.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 85, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Implementation Act, be read for the second time.

This bill

Affirms the declaration as a universal human rights instrument with application to the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Territories and the laws of the Northwest Territories;

Provides a framework for the implementation of the declaration by the Government of the Northwest Territories in collaboration and cooperation with Indigenous governments or organizations; and,

Affirms the roles and responsibilities of Indigenous governments or organizations in the implementation of the declaration.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Premier. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is carried. Bill 85 has had second reading.

Carried

Second reading of bills. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Bill 23 and 29, Committee Report 4919(2), Committee Report 5119(2), Minister's Statement 26419(2), Tabled Document 68119(2).

By the authority given to me as Speaker under rule order. A lot of sidebar in here.

I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, committee wishes to consider Committee Report 4919(2), Report on the 20212022 Review of the Official Languages Act; and, Committee Report 5119(2), Report on Indigenous Representation in the Northwest Territories Public Service. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Does committee agree?

Agreed.

Thank you, committee. We'll take a five-minute break.

SHORT RECESS

I now call Committee of the Whole to order. Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 4919(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the 20212022 Review of the Official Languages Act. I will go to the chair of Standing Committee on Government Operations for any opening marks. Member for Yellowknife North

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Government Operations has been reviewing the Official Languages Act over the last two years. The committee's report was read into the record on March 27th, 2023. Since the act had not been changed since 2003, it was the committee's goal to

Collect input from Northerners on the effectiveness of the Official Languages Act;

To recommend changes to better protect and revitalize official languages; and,

To ensure changes are implemented.

The committee heard the desire for change during its outreach with the public as well as from past reports on this legislation. During the committee's statutory review, Bill 63 was brought forward by the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to address some of the known issues in the Official Languages Act.

Bill 63 received third reading on March 28th, 2023. While the committee was glad to see some changes to the Official Languages Act in Bill 63, the committee believes that those changes do not go far enough. In the feedback the committee heard, it was clear that participants across the Northwest Territories want and need more change.

The committee has made 13 recommendations to further transform the way the Official Languages Act serves and protects official languages in the Northwest Territories. These recommendations strive to

Implement the right to receive services in your official language of choice;

Implement the right to K to 12 immersion education in your local language;

Doubling resource to support and revitalize Indigenous languages; and,

Support of official language speakers in the public service. The committee looks forward to the government's response to these recommendations.

The committee would like to thank everyone who participated in the review. The committee was inspired by Northwest Territories residents doing amazing things to reclaim their languages, teach young people with limited resources, and advocate changes to help their language communities survive and thrive. I would like to thank the committee for their work on this review. Individual Members may have additional comments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Committee Report 4919(2). Do any Members have any general comments? Seeing none. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories double funding for Indigenous language education, services, and revitalization. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

Carried

Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories reimburse use of an Indigenous official language as an eligible expense for all programs, grants, and contributions;

And further, these funding agreements should be multiyear to reduce administrative burden and improve sustainability. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

Carried

Member for Yellowknife North.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment set up a creative commons for Indigenouslanguage resource materials;

And further, that the creative commons should build on the Our Languages NWT platform and offer an accessible digital space;

And furthermore, it should allow creators and users to share and collaborate on educational materials, languagelearning apps, curricula, grant applications, and other resources. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to just want to speak directly to the Minister of education on this one. We heard one of the teachers say that they spent $30,000 to create a textbook in an official language and then someone else actually owns the copyright to that and they can't, you know, share that with other language resources, they can't use the same kind of standard textbook formatting and get it translated. So the solution we heard to doing that was that there needs to be a creative commons for Indigenous language resource materials so that those are not copyrighted. This seems like a pretty easy ask, to make sure that those teachers could all share resources without concerns for copyright. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to just thank the committee for the work on this. That's not one that I sit on. And I think this just comes back to, I think, two years ago asking the Minister if we were going to get some of our languages on, like, Google and Google Translate. And I have to say, actually, since that time I've noticed there are more resources online that I can look up certain words in Inuktitut or Inuvialuit sorry, I'm not getting any I won't even try today. And so therefore, you know, I just see that this is such a great thing. Teachers are very collaborative. They're very about, you know, not reinventing the wheel and sharing their information. And I think just having this kind of a resource is amazing, even as a person who doesn't speak an Indigenous language, just the ability to go somewhere and look it up would be great. So I think this is a wonderful recommendation from the committee. Thank you.

To the motion.

Question.