Thank you, Minister McLeod. To the motion. Minister McLeod.
Just very quickly, Madam Chair. I’ve been a part of two of these now and both of them have sparked a lot of good debate. We asked this commission, which is supposed to be an independent commission, to go out and listen to what the people have to say and then come back with some of their recommendations. I mean, we’ve seen a motion today to completely dismiss those recommendations and we’ve had a few other motions.
I believe that if we, eight years from now, the Legislative Assembly of the day will ask the commission to go out and do some consultations across the Northwest Territories. They’ll have an opportunity to come back. The Members of the day will have an opportunity to provide some input before their final recommendations, and I believe those recommendations should be binding. I think we’ve heard somebody say that six jurisdictions have this, and we’ve heard today that the commission, I believe, takes everything into consideration. I think we see that now with the 19 Members that we do have and with the discrepancy in the numbers from 760 to 2,800. I think they do take everything into consideration.
I would like to see the future commission reports binding, and I appreciate the opportunity to have spoken a few words on this.
Thank you, Minister McLeod. To the motion. Next I have Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Recommendations from electoral boundaries commissions are binding in the following six jurisdictions: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Manitoba and Canada. This does not mean in these six jurisdictions the reports of the Electoral Boundaries Commission has always been accepted without objection. Two jurisdictions, New Brunswick and Canada, provide a formal mechanism to register objections with the commission. Although any objections must be considered by a commission, amendments to a commission’s proposal are not required.
In Quebec during the most recent redistribution exercise, the Legislature enacted legislation to suspend the review process because legislators were not happy with the commission report. Meanwhile, last year in Nova Scotia the Minister of Justice rejected a commission’s interim report because in the government’s estimation it did not comply with the Commissioner’s mandate. This raised questions as to whether the final report of a commission would actually be binding if it did not meet the mandate of the commission. Just to point out that these are exceptions to the rules as opposed to the rule.
Most jurisdictions prescribe in legislation the total number of electoral districts and acceptable variances either in absolute terms or in accordance with a formula. All 14 jurisdictions in Canada employ independent electoral boundaries commissions to periodically examine the redistribution and readjustment of the electoral district boundaries.
What this motion is doing is suggesting we follow a model similar to New Brunswick, where a commission is given a direction or mandate to go out and determine boundaries based on things like we’ve heard discussed here today – numbers, language, culture, regional realities – but it provides MLAs with an opportunity to provide an objection if they feel that the commission missed the point. The commission will take this, as well as all input from communities and from residents of a territory, and develop a final report. The trick here is we need to make sure that our legislation, if this motion is passed, is tight and solid, and clearly and fairly represents the things that you’ve heard in this House today, that language, that culture, that regional differences are taken into consideration and are built into our legislation. Then you take the politics out of it and have this commission go out, do the work, meet the public, talk to the public and come back with a binding decision. Madam Chair, I support this motion.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion. Minister Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly will be supporting the motion that is before us here today. I agree with Minister Abernethy on this and others that have spoken about taking the politics out of this. I think we really need to do that and find a way and process that will enable that to happen. This motion certainly does that.
We had a very close vote today on the findings of the Electoral Boundaries Commission. I think if I could, I’d like to make an amendment to the motion. It’s just something that I think has to happen. I think eight years is too long for the House to wait for another electoral boundaries report to be done and commissioned by the Legislative Assembly. It’s too long to wait for a riding like Monfwi. It’s too long to wait for a riding like the Sahtu and perhaps even Yellowknife.
Madam Chair, maybe just a minor amendment to the motion that’s before us would be to refer the issue of having an Electoral Boundaries Commission struck in the 18th Legislative Assembly and maybe we could refer the issue to the Board of Management for further review. That way, hopefully it will give a little bit of comfort to those ridings and people out there wondering what happened today. Four years comes a lot quicker than eight. I think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t think anything can stop us from going to the Electoral Boundaries Commission Act and have the next Assembly, rather than the Assembly after it, deal with the issue. I think that’s something I would like to put on the floor, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Do you have a written version of your proposed motion to amend the motion? Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Maybe just a sentence at the end saying we would refer whether or not the 18th Legislative Assembly could propose changes or this Assembly could propose changes to the EBC Act to have the next government, which would be the 18th Legislative Assembly strike an Electoral Boundaries Commission as opposed to the 19th Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The motion to amend the motion that’s on the floor has to be in a written format. So, accordingly, we will take a break. Thank you.
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I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Mr. Ramsay.
