Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Motion's in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? Opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
The Standing Committee on Government Operations (Committee) has reviewed the 2022-2023 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Ombud (Ombud) and the Special Report on Recommendations for Amendments to the Ombud Act. The Committee thanks Ms. Colette Langlois, Ombud, for her appearance before the Committee on April 9, 2024.
Section 33 of the Ombud Act requires the Ombud to prepare an annual report. The Speaker tables the reports in the Legislative Assembly. Once tabled, Committee reviews the reports.
The Annual Report includes information about the Ombud’s Office, administrative fairness, and their work performed over the previous year such as inquiries and complaints received, public education and outreach, and finances.
The Special Report provides an updated list of recommendations to update and amend the Ombud Act after Bill 61, An Act to Amend the Ombud Act came into force on July 1, 2023.
The NWT Ombud is an independent office of the Legislative Assembly tasked with speaking up for fairness in territorial government administration and services. The powers and duties of the Ombud include:
• Investigating complaints from people who feel they have been treated unfairly by territorial authorities.
• Own-initiative investigations to help improve government services.
• Public education on the principles of administrative fairness.
Ombud’s Reports The Ombud did not make any recommendations in the 2022-2023 Annual Report. Instead, she submitted a Special Report with ten recommendations for amendments to the Ombud’s Act:
1. That the Ombud’s jurisdiction be extended to hamlets, cities, towns, and villages.
2. That the provision restricting the Ombud from investigating human rights matters where there is overlap with administrative fairness be amended or removed.
3. That the Ombud’s jurisdiction be extended to complaints about the human rights offices.
4. That references to “judicial review” be removed in section 17, and that consideration be given to instead including wording similar to what is used in other Canadian jurisdictions.
5. That the Ombud’s power to obtain information from authorities during an investigation be strengthened and clarified.
6. That the Act be amended to include a new provision assuring public servants and authorities that they can provide information to the Ombud voluntarily.
7. That the definition of “administrative head” be amended to be more inclusive of heads who do not have the title of “Deputy Minister” or “Chief Executive Officer”.
8. That a provision be added to protect the confidentiality of evidence obtained in the course of Ombuds processes similar to provisions found in other Canadian legislation.
9. That the wording “and any administrative policies of the Clerk” be removed from subsection 42(2).
10. That the French title “Protecteur du citoyen” be replaced with the title “Ombud”.
In October 2020, the Speaker tabled the Ombud’s first ever-ever Annual Report, for 2019-2020. The Ombud ‘s report made 14 recommendations for legislative changes to the Act. The recommendations were informed by the Ombud’s review of legislation in other jurisdictions, advice received from other Ombuds and legal professionals, and issued that arose when the Ombud responded to individual complaints.
Committee at that time endorsed many of the Ombud’s recommendations in their subsequent Review Report. That report was tabled in May 2021 and discussed in Committee of the Whole. The Legislative Assembly ultimately adopted seven (7) motions that recommended changes to the Act.
At the time, Members hoped the GNWT would put forward amending legislation in the remaining two years of the 19th Assembly and were disappointed when the GNWT declined to do so in the November 2021 response. Rather, the GNWT agreed only to consider Committee’s recommendations in the context of a “future review.”
In June 2022, Committee followed up on the GNWT’s response in a meeting with the Government House Leader. Committee wanted to learn more about the GNWT’s position and, more importantly, make one more appeal for change to the Act in the 19th Assembly. Ultimately, the Government maintained its position and declined to make changes.
In response, Bill 61: An Act to Amend the Ombud Act, was tabled in November 2022 as a private members bill. The Member for Yellowknife North worked with the Ombud to address the most pressing issues, and the amended Act came into force in April 2023.
In the Report on the Review of Bill 61, Committee recommended that “the GNWT, in consultation with the Board of Management, lead a holistic review to examine and clarify the jurisdiction of each statutory officer of the Assembly.” In its response, the Government committed to undertaking a review of the Act early in the 20th Assembly.
Many of the recommendations in the Ombud’s 2024 Special Report are still outstanding from the Ombud’s first report tabled in October 2020. Committee is dissatisfied that efforts to craft recommendations that would improve government operations – which were endorsed as motions in the Legislative Assembly – were disregarded without meaningful and timely action. Therefore, Committee recommends that:
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories take immediate action to enact the ten recommendations of the Ombud or provide the rationale and justification as to why the Government is not proceeding with the recommendations.
During the public review on April 9, 2024, the Ombud spoke about the initiatives taken on by the Ombud’s Office to increase public education and outreach. The Ombud talked about the positive impact of in-person outreach and the success of the Working Together for Fairness full-day seminar offered to the public service. Committee is impressed at the steps the Ombud has taken to engage with both members of the public and public servants to raise awareness about administrative fairness.
However, the Ombud also expressed concern that the Office lacked capacity to fulfill its mandate. The Office’s current compliment of three staff, including the Ombud, manages between 150 and 200 case files per year in addition to initiating own-motion investigations and providing outreach and public education. Committee shares the Ombud’s concerns: there is evidence of increases in the volume and complexity of complaints reported, combined with the increased demand for training and outreach.
Committee believes the Ombud’s Office should have the capacity and resources it needs to fulfill all aspects of its mandate, and consequently recommends:
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories, in consultation with the Ombud, identify and address any shortfalls in budget or resources that may inhibit the Ombud’s Office from fulfilling their mandate.
This concludes the Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2022-2023 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Ombud and Special Report on Recommendations for Amendments to the Ombud Act.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to the recommendations contained in this report within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Great Slave, that Committee Report 620(1), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 20222023 Annual Report of the Northwest Territories Ombud and Special Report on Recommendations for Amendments to the Ombud Act, be received and adopted by the Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Motion's in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion has passed.
Carried
Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm almost a little bit sad it's about to be over.
Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Great Slave, that pursuant to Rule 9.4(5)(a) that the Government of the Northwest Territories table a comprehensive response to this report, including all recommendations, within 120 days, or at the earliest opportunity subsequent to the passage of 120 days. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Motion's in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is passed.
Carried
No longer asking questions or Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nothing that exciting like my colleague across there, but I wish to table the following document: Followup Letter for Oral Question 16320(1): Supports Available for Residents of Enterprise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, June 10th, 2024, I will move the following motion:
Now therefore I move, seconded by the Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that the Government of the Northwest Territories reallocate funding resources without delay to implement the revised municipal funding gap policies;
And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories balance the current discrepancy between communities regarding the percentage of the formula funding they receive;
And furthermore, that the Government of the Northwest Territories make the calculation of the municipal funding gap, by community, publicly available;
And furthermore, the Government of the Northwest Territories acknowledge the increased costs facing communities through public emergencies and natural disasters and allocate a new stream of funding for public safety and emergency preparedness into the municipal funding gap calculations;
And furthermore, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker,
WHEREAS the Northwest Territories is facing an increase in drugs and related crime in the Northwest Territories;
AND WHEREAS the drug trade in the Northwest Territories is taking advantage of vulnerable people;
AND WHEREAS illicit drugs in the Northwest Territories are largely coming from southern provinces;
AND WHEREAS profits from the drug trade in the Northwest Territories are primarily benefitting southern organized crime groups;
AND WHEREAS the Government of Canada has worked collaboratively with the United States on a crossborder crime forum since 1997 to improve response to the drug trade and the safety of communities;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Member for Mackenzie Delta, that the Government of the Northwest Territories initiate a CrossBorder Crime Reduction Forum that would involve the Governments of the Northwest Territories, Canada, Yukon, Alberta and British Columbia;
AND FURTHER, the focus of a crossborder forum will increase the response to violence and drug trafficking in rural and remote communities;
AND FURTHERMORE, the focus of the crossborder forum improve efforts to disrupt the illicit drug network and drugrelated crime and violence in Northwest Territories communities;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. To the motion. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've spoken about it in this House, the Premier has spoken about it, other Members have as well, including the seconder of the motion, the Member for Mackenzie Delta. There is a drug epidemic in the Northwest Territories that has gone from being a public health crisis to a public safety crisis. Organized crime has been infiltrating the Northwest Territories and preying upon those suffering from addictions and trauma, since the year since COVID particularly, and it's reached an alltime high. We're seeing rates of violence that we haven't seen before, of sophisticated organized crime groups that we haven't seen before. The RCMP need additional resources that they're being given by this government. But more so than that, we need to ensure that there is political coordination on this. I have full confidence that our police have the ability to speak to each other and to coordinate these things across provincial boundaries, and I know that the Premier cares about this. This is giving the extra oomph to make this a priority on the national stage. We need to make sure the rest of Canada knows that our small territory is very vulnerable and hurting, and we need all of our friend and neighbours to support our efforts to tackle this wave of crime and to hold these organizations to account and prevent them from doing harm to our communities.
It's very hard to stop people from crossing our borders who mean harm, so we need to come up with innovative solutions and ways to do that, solutions that are going to take more than just the RCMP. So this motion calls on various governments to meet together and figure out how to do exactly that.
The motion makes reference to how the Government of Canada and the United States work together, because that is a successful model of inter of crossborder collaboration to decrease trafficking of illicit goods and substances and crossborder crime, and we hope that that will serve as a model and an example of how provincial governments and the federal government can work together to achieve this.
The motion also speaks particularly to rural and remote communities. Our small communities are the most vulnerable to these predators because we don't have the resources in them to respond quickly. So if there's an RCMP call in a rural and remote community, it takes time to get there. And we definitely need to keep that in mind and keep those of our residents in mind because they are the most vulnerable to this. And the drug dealers are getting there. The criminals are getting there. It may seem like this is a problem that's only going to hit regional centres and places with airports and communities connected on the highway, but I know from working with my colleagues here that there are very much rural and remote communities completely isolated that are seeing drugs and seeing crime and these people coming into their communities.
So like I said, we need all resources coming to bear to keep people safe. We have to draw a red line and make sure that things don't get any worse because if they do, this is going to have dire consequences for all of our residents and for all of our communities. So I encourage this House to support this motion and to bring awareness and collaboration where it's truly needed to tackle this scourge of organized crime from the southern provinces coming into the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Range Lake. To the motion. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seconded this motion mainly because it's having an effect on small communities, especially in my community. Fort McPherson is the first community you'll hit when you come over the border from the Yukon. There's a lot of trafficking of hard, illicit drugs coming from the Yukon and also from southern Canada. We've seen a lot of violence within our small communities. We've witnessed people, strangers in our communities, because within our small communities everybody knows each other, then when you see somebody wandering around the community in the evening or late at night, they start to get suspicious and they start calling people around the communities. But like my colleague stated the RCMP right now, they don't have the resources to deal with this crisis that we are in. We already have the marijuana that's already around the schoolaged children, and my fear is these hard drugs coming right directly into the school. And if that happens, we've lost the battle completely because it's a fear that these children, they're in dire straits of, you know, they're going to be lost. I fear for the communities. We've already had an uprising in two of my constituency communities, one in Aklavik and one in Fort McPherson where the community members decided to take this into their own hands and address the situation, and the police couldn't do nothing. They just had to stand by and watch. So I figured this would happen sooner or later, and it did happen. It's just fortunate the drug dealers didn't have any firearms, or it would have been very, very bad.
So the reason I second this motion is just for community safety, residents' safety, safety of all Northerners. We have to take our communities back, and this motion will get that process started. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, member from Mackenzie Delta. To the motion. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too stand up to support the motion. It will not only send a message on passage and direction to the general public that we serve, but it will more importantly send the message if the crossborder meeting happens, it'll send a safety message and comfort to the public that we represent that we are actioning and addressing and notifying and notice the drug trade. And as mentioned, more importantly, send that message out we are doing something. I see it dramatically, not only in the capital here, but throughout some of the communities I represent. To some degree, I'm just shocked at the volume and the magnitude that this problem is creating in and out of the hospitals, in our health centres, tearing families apart. I heard shocking and emotional statements here at our recent couple of drug workshops we had in the Sahtu. So I applaud the leadership of the Sahtu, and I applaud the motion that, yes, enough talk, let's take some action. Mahsi.
Thank you, member from the Sahtu. To the motion. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll be brief. You've heard me make comments in this House about the fact that these illicit drugs are destroying our communities. I support the motion. If I could support it twice, I would. And I think anybody in this House should feel the same way. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. To the motion. Member from Dehcho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I to am rising to support this motion. Since we have no since the ferry went out, the Merv Hardy ferry in Fort Providence and we now have a bridge, it seems like things are open 24/7. And this is not only impacting my communities in my riding but also communities all along the road, the highway system, that have to deal with this drug issue. And the impacts to the community from illicit drugs coming into our communities, high rate of medivacs, we're having incarceration rates are going up because of crime. You have deaths and healthy families that are being affected by drugs coming into our community. So we need to do something so I'm standing up today to support a forum to bring people together to discuss ways that could help people to get so we have some solutions in how to deal with this and combat it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for the Dehcho. To the motion. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I also support this motion because this has an impact on my community and other Tlicho communities in the regions, and it also has an impact on the flyin community as well. So there is an increase in drug usage, and it is affecting a lot of our community members, the vulnerable people, the vulnerable and the children as well. So I do support this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Monfwi. To the motion. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ever so briefly, as the downtown Member of this Assembly and when I refer to downtown, that's Yellowknife Centre it's a very urban riding and it's impacted heavily by this. This is when I spoke to the neighbourhoods in the community, in the core of the city, you know, this was their number one issue. You know, it might be housing in a small community, and it might be health care on other people, but I can tell you the downtown core of Yellowknife, crime and the reduction of crime is foremost on their mind. There is, you know, nothing burdens them more than this, and I'm referring to en masse, Mr. Speaker. Obviously other issues matter too.
As said by my good colleague for the Range Lake, they are predators. I don't think we should ever give them any less of a title. I'd like to give them a meaner one, but we have parliamentary rules which don't permit me to describe them the way I really feel. They find ways to burrow themselves in communities, whether it's in a small community I won't name one because I don't want to single one out as a problem per se, but whether it's in the small communities or the regional centres, these people get in there, they rent, then they're gone tomorrow, they hijack lives, they steal souls from people because they prey on their addictions. The addictions of vulnerable are the other piece of this equation. Let us not kid you know, it's not a sales job in the context of they just show up. I mean, they are responding to a problem and the problem is they're showing up. Yes, that's a problem, but addictions are something else we need to keep foremost on our mind, that we need to support to give people better opportunities.
Mr. Speaker, this motion also lends to the sad observation that we've had more murders here than anyone can think of, and that is a tragedy in on itself. With this type of predatory behaviour, they bring other things, such as weapons and guns to name just a couple points. And the fact is it destroys a community, and it destroys people.
As I finish up here, Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that families leaving some of the buildings downtown and walking in their neighbourhood have said the culture of the community has changed significantly. And I can say between the addictions and the crime, that is exactly what they're describing when they're expressing their frustration.
So I put full support to the motion. I acknowledge the Member for Range Lake for moving it. I acknowledge the Member from Mackenzie Delta, which I want to put on record, has been relentless on this issue about fighting for community safety. The Mackenzie Delta Member has, at every chance, pointed out that these are problems in his communities and region and the territory. So he isn't just fighting for his town; he's fighting for the whole people of the Northwest Territories and he's been a heavy advocate as well and deserves credit. So, again, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be fully supporting Member of Range Lake on this initiative. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. To the motion. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Members for their impassioned statements. I, as well, have spoken about this many times in the House, the impact of drugs. I didn't hear a lot of comments about the actual motion and the potential efficacy of this motion and so as a Cabinet, we are going to abstain so that we can actually take this back, look at the substance of the motion, look at how it might play out in the real world, and then provide a response back in 120 days. Thank you.
Mr. Premier. To the motion. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, colleagues, who spoke in support of this motion. I want to just reassure the Honourable Premier that this motion has some has realism to it, and I look forward to the government's response and to see them move forward with this forum. And we can start as the seconder of this motion said, we can start to take our communities back and address this problem with the resources that we need to get it done, keep our communities safe, and fight these predators when they show up in our territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'd like to request a recorded vote.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. To the motion.
Question.
The Member for Range Lake. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The Member for Monfwi. The Member for Frame Lake. The Member for Great Slave. The Member for Mackenzie Delta. The Member for Yellowknife North. The Member for Dehcho. The Member for Sahtu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.
The Member for Thebacha. The Member for Yellowknife South. The Member for Kam Lake. The Member for Hay River North. The Member for Hay River South. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. The Member for Nunakput.
Thank you. Colleagues, those in favour, ten. Zero, no. And seven abstentions. Motion has passed.
Carried
Motions. Notices of motion for the first reading of bills. First reading of bills. Second reading of bills.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, bill 2, Committee Report 220, Minister's Statement 420(1), Minister's Statement 520(1), Minister's Statement 1720(1), Minister's Statement 2420(1), Tabled Document 9320(1).
Now I call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Member for Inuvik Boot Lake
