Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 27, An Act to Amend the Environmental Protection Act, be read for the second time. This bill makes several amendments to the Environmental Protection Act. It removes the non-application provision; authorizes the Minister to establish and make publicly available a register respecting environmental contaminants; authorizes the Minister to determine that discharges are nuisances; authorizes the Minister to exempt persons from complying with the act or the regulations; creates a new exception to the prohibition against releasing contaminants for discharges authorized under other legislation and provides that the exception to the prohibition does not apply to nuisance discharges; requires persons intending to discharge environmental contaminants to register with the Minister, obtain a licence or permit, and provide the prescribed information; and broadens the regulation-making powers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I know the Minister is anxious to get on, but I had a closer look at this bill last night, and I do have some concerns.
First off, the department, and I want to commend them for this, they did go through an extensive public consultation around what was called the Northwest Territories Air Regulatory Framework last summer. I submitted comments as an individual. One of those sets of comments was around whether the issuing of air permits is something that might be handled by the land and water boards, who already have a well-established system of doing so that allows for quality public engagement opportunities.
The department did summarize some of the comments that they received back in March of this year. They put out a "What We Heard" document, but it was never really clear what the next steps were, and, all of a sudden, here we have a bill that is landed before us. I will be the last one to try to slow this down, but I think there is a gap here between what the department heard and then this step that is taken, without really indicating what kind of an approach the department is really taking on this. I think there may be a department from the original approach that was laid out in the air quality framework of a year ago, and I would recommend to the Minister that he provide an update that could perhaps be put on the website to let people know what the current approach is.
One matter that I am concerned about in the bill is the ability of the Minister to exempt persons or classes of persons from the act or the regulations. I think that raises some issues around what kind of terms and conditions should be placed on that and what will motivate a Minister perhaps to exempt persons or classes of persons from the application of the act and the regulations, so I do have some general concerns with the principles of this bill, Mr. Speaker. I would urge the Minister to certainly inform the public about what is going on and how the Northwest Territories air quality Framework may have been modified or the approach that was suggested there may have been changed or modified in some way with this bill. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. To the principle of the bill.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Bill 27 has had its second reading and is now referred to a committee. Second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Tobacco Tax Act; Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act; Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2; Committee Report 10-18(2), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Review of Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act Response to Report within 120 Days; Minister's Statement 186-18(2); Tabled Document 383-18(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018; Tabled Document 384-18(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018. With the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 18-18(2), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House, with the Member for Hay River North in the chair.
