Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I want to take the opportunity to say how delighted I am to see the legislation that came forward, the final form of this legislation. Earlier, when we were consulting with the government on how best to bring about changes to our land acts, there was a lot of back and forth between the standing committee and the government, and one of the strong desires of committee was to get a move on with amalgamating the acts into a single piece of legislation. This is something that has eluded the Yukon, for example, for more than 10 years, and committee felt very strongly it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The purpose of this motion is twofold: one is to immediately provide up to nearly four months of tax relief to NWT taxpayers, because that would be the time between the passage of the act pass and to be implemented January 1st, especially during the cold winter months. I believe the savings are in the public's interest.

The second is a more fundamental question which is, who should decide on such a fundamental change as adding a significant tax to a jurisdiction whose number one public issue is the cost of living. Members have spoken at length about how dissatisfied they...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, support this motion. It was a motion that cooperatively and collaboratively developed by the committee. Unfortunately, it did not make it through the committee's public clause-by-clause review of the bill, but it has been kindly brought forward by my colleague, the honourable Member for Frame Lake.

This is exactly, as he says, a one-time review to check in on the health of the act, and it is important because the public who came out to speak with the committee, and who the department engaged in developing the bill, had very high expectation of what this legislation...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the chair said, the committee spent a great deal of time working on this bill, and largely it was driven by the need to cooperate with our sister territory of Nunavut and work closely with their standing committee. That was a very productive relationship, and we were able to communicate some issues that both sides found with the bill.

However, the unique nature of this legislation where one body exists in two different jurisdictions and is governed by two acts, I think the expectation is that how it works in the NWT will be how it works in Nunavut, and that makes very...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to consider Committee Report 30-18(3): Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures Report on the Review of Bill 56: Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act and Draft Code of Conduct; Bill 56: An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 2; Committee Report 28-18(3): Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report on the Review of Bill 25: An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act; Bill 25: An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act; Committee Report 27-18(3): Standing Committee on Economic...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the chair rise and report progress. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For those who are not acronym-savvy, SLAPP stands for "strategic litigation against public participation," and this is the use of the courts, essentially, to silence criticism or public advocacy of a project or a policy or something that a private interest does not want to be criticized about. A number of Legislatures are considering similar legislation. The British Columbia Legislature has since passed an anti-SLAPP bill, and it received all-party support in their Legislature.

This is a really important issue. It is imperative that we protect the public's interest to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to speak in strong support of this bill. The ongoing commitment that this Assembly has made to improve its code of conduct and make changes that will allow it to be enforceable and tangible. It gives much comfort to our citizens and those who expect a high standard of behaviour and conduct from their elected officials. I am pleased to stand in support of this important legislation to improve our democratic institutions. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommend that the Department of Finance table on annual report in the Legislative Assembly on the carbon tax that provides detail on: total carbon taxes collected; carbon taxes collected from large emitters; total rebates provided; number and nature of grants provided; costs of administrating the carbon tax; reinvestment of carbon tax revenues; projected tax revenues for coming year; and an annual plan for future year reinvestment of carbon tax revenues. Thank you, Mr. Chair.