Debates of August 23, 2011 (day 16)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee recommends that the 17th Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures strongly consider adding the automatic referral of the annual reports of the Northwest Territories Heritage Fund to the terms of reference of the appropriate standing committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Bromley, to the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m very happy to see the committee proposing this motion. I think the basic relationship here is that we are proposing to move public funds into an investment fund until such time as we have a sufficient accumulation to draw from it, the interest of it, and basically it is destined to benefit future, largely future residents and to some extent existing residents. So I want to say that I very much support any measures we can take to ensure the clear and frequent opportunity for the public to have some input and some clear opportunities to express their views on how these public funds should be invested.

So, once again, I support this motion and I just want to point out the importance of these sorts of mechanisms to establish an opportunity for the public voice to be heard.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, want to express my appreciation for this motion coming forward. I feel really strongly that any funds within the Heritage Fund belong to the people of the NWT; they don’t belong to the Assembly. I think that there needs to be a certain amount of public oversight on the fund itself and the reporting of the fund needs to be monitored to a certain extent by the public. I appreciate the recommendation from the Minister, and it was accepted by committee, that we don’t need an arm’s length body to monitor the fund in the first period while we are not withdrawing funds. I think this is sort of a good compromise that the reports from the Heritage Fund will go to a standing committee for review and for consideration. I would encourage that that standing committee would make it as public a process as possible. There certainly are organizations and individuals that live within the NWT who have an interest in monitoring what we do with the Heritage Fund, how it’s performing, whether it’s performing as they believe it should, and they need the opportunity for input. I’m really glad to see that this motion is here and I strongly support it.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.

Question.

Question has been called.

---Carried

Mr. Menicoche.