Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the following be added after Rule 8.3(8):
(9) a bill reported by a standing or special committee as 'should not proceed' shall require a motion be adopted by the House to consider the bill in Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you. I'm not in favour of this motion. Right now when Committee of the Whole has to deal with their business, the chair calls it, and then we have a vote, and then sometimes Cabinet has to, you know, get something on the agenda we saw it today and last couple times over the last while. I don't know why adding this extra step would occur when it doesn't occur with anything else. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So right now there already is a vote. There's not a motion, but there's a vote, if there is a bill that is deemed not ready to go into Committee of the Whole. Someone will call that bill if they want, and then the committee will vote whether or not they want to bring it to Committee of the Whole. So, you know, during this Assembly, we have lengthened the amount of time it takes to get through legislation through additional, you know, public processes, Intergovernmental Council processes, the protocols that we've signed. And going forward in future Assemblies, I imagine that time will get longer. And there are instances where we need to get legislation through or at least have it debated. Give Members the opportunity to debate that legislation so that it has the opportunity to go through if that's the Assembly's wish. And sometimes that comes down to a day. You know, we need to get something done by this day and if we don't get it done by that day, it doesn't get done. And so what we're talking about here could add a day to that process. And so I have a concern that a committee could make a recommendation and similar to some you know, going back to some of these other motions we've discussed, sometimes the people doing the work on the committee might be two people. It might be two or three people. And so I don't want those two or three people to be able to deny the Assembly perhaps or you put up more roadblocks to the Assembly to do the Assembly's work. So I'm also opposed to this. We have work to get done, and this is just going to extend that timeline for us to do that work, slow us down, and that's not what we need to be doing right now. Thanks.
To the motion. Member for Nunakput.
Madam Chair, this rule is being brought forward because it's a check on Cabinet. Anything brought forward in a motion could take up to one or two days in regards to getting it through the House and if it's not nayed going through. So this rule is just brought forward to keep Cabinet in check. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's why it's brought forward.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Like my colleague, who serves as chair of the committee, we did talk about this and I'm not sure I can share my colleague's characterization of committee reports. Committee reports are from a committee. They're not from one or two Members. And believe me, I've seen the how hard the clerks work to make sure that there is consensus from committee, and if needs a majority vote, it gets a vote. Reports are not from one or two Members; they are from a committee. And that's the way it needs to be interpreted in this House so I don't feel very good about my colleague's characterization of committee work. But as it was said, this is really about, as I see it, a check on Cabinet's power. If they really want to call a bill, bring it to the House where we can have a formal debate and discussion about it and a motion to proceed in that manner, and then it's the will of the House. It's not kind of an amorphous discussion in Committee of the Whole about who's doing what. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that Rule 4.4(8) be amended by:
Deleting the words "the Legislative Assembly epetitions site" and replacing them with the words "an electronic petition site approved by the Speaker." Thank you, Madam Chair.
Member for Nunakput.
Sorry, Madam Chair, for that. I'm ahead of myself. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Rule 9.4(4) be amended by adding the word "not" after the words "Committee of the Whole shall…." Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Rule 4.4 (8) be amended by: Deleting the words "the Legislative Assembly epetitions site" and replacing them with the words "an electronic petition site approved by the Speaker..." Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion's carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee recommends that Rule 2.3(4) be amended by adding "all remaining business shall stand over until the next sitting day" to the end of the existing rule. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Rule 5.6(2) be amended by adding the following after Rule 5.6(2)(C) "(d) shall not refer to any matter on the orders for that day." Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed raise your hand. The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Nunakput.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Rule 1.9 (4) be amended by adding the words "a stranger does not include an infant being cared for by a Member" at the end of the rule. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I feel like this is the icing on the cake of making this a family friendly workplace. Just to recap, when I first started working here, if you wanted to change a baby you had to change him or her on the bathroom floor. That was the only available place. So what a long way we've come from that to actually welcoming babies into the Chamber. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I want to thank the Member for Yellowknife Centre for the time that she gave of her own personal time, especially before this Assembly, in sitting down with people and answering a multitude of questions. I was one of those people that had a lot of questions about how being in this building, especially as a parent with young children might look, and I really appreciated having that insight.
I wanted to add though for my colleagues, because it's something that has come up in a lot of conversations, and even at board of management, is how do you make sure that this building is family friendly, and one of the things that I wanted to add, and hopefully people who are here next time will hear, is one of the things that COVID left behind was our ability to do a lot more meetings virtually. And as chair of the Standing Committee on Social Development, my rule was always you take the meeting from wherever works best for you and your family as long as you participate. And I just wanted to add that in here because I think it's really important to be able to hang on to that so that people especially people from out of town can still participate. The other thing I wanted to say is that people need to consider if they're having a meeting on a Saturday morning, does it really need to be a Saturday morning, or can it be held on a weekday. So I just wanted to add those in. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And to answer my colleague's question, no, I won't be now having a baby in order to take advantage of these. My colleague from Nunakput, not Kam Lake, sorry.
I did want to say echo the sentiments as well that, you know, having been a part of this Assembly, to have this many women in and to see the changes that have occurred because of that, not only in our procedures but just some of the things that have happened where the conversations around earrings that we seem to have. We joke that the number 1 thing said here in this House sometimes is who made your earrings. And then a clerk coming in and bringing her child in while she was on mat leave was a moment for me that really struck me as a legislator that this is probably something that has not happened much in the past, and we not only see it in our Members but we're also seeing it in our staff, that there is a lot more representation. And so, yeah, I think it's an exciting thing. And I have to laugh. It's probably one of the most funny worded motions I think I've ever seen, but I love it. So thank you, Madam Chair.
To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Sorry, I just drew a blank there. I was just thinking about Katrina having a baby maybe. All those in favour, please raise your hand. All those opposed, raise your hand. The motion is carried.
Carried
Thank you, committee. Do you agree that you've concluded consideration of Committee Report 5219(2)?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We have concluded consideration of Committee Report 5219(2), Report on the Review of the Rules of the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly.
Committee, we've agreed to consider Report 7519(2), Report on the Review of Rules of the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, No. 2. I will go to the chair of Standing Committee on rules and procedures for any opening comments. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures delivered a report on the Review of the Rules of the Legislative Assembly, No. 2, to the Assembly on October 3rd, 2023.
With the 19th Legislative Assembly coming to a conclusion, the committee has reviewed the rules and made 22 recommendations that: Provide clarity and reflect current practice in the House, streamline administrative functions in the parliamentary process in the Northwest Territories, and recognize the adoption of the Consensus Government Process Convention on the Introduction and Enactment of Bills pursuant to the Intergovernmental Council Legislative Development Protocol.
Individual Members may have comments, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Member, can we agree to go into discussion by each motion? Like, any comments to the motions? Can we go right to the motions?
