R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Minister's Statement 19-18(3), Aurora College Foundational Review Process, and would like to report progress, and I move that the report of the Committee of the Whole be concurred about. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. There is a motion to report progress. The motion is in order and non-debatable. All those in favour? All those opposed?

---Carried

I will now rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this motion is what some would call a compromise, what some would call better than nothing, and what some may call nothing more than a smokescreen.

Many Members of this House and many members of the public have expressed a desire for private sales of cannabis and the opportunity to sell cannabis in all communities in the NWT. However, as the bill is written, it gives the Minister of Finance broad discretion, seemingly the broadest discretion available under the law, as to who he designates as a cannabis vendor, and this government has made it clear that it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't like this motion. I find it too prescriptive, but I am in support of it because our alternative is subservience to what I believe is a wrong-headed policy position for all of the reasons mentioned by Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Vanthuyne, and I have nothing further to say. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, the committee was supposed to have a public briefing on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway, and I was hoping that would happen before this motion so we would have a better sense of whether or not the timing is right to make this motion. I see in here it calls for the audit to be completed as soon as practicable, and I know that, the Auditor General's office, you are not going to meet a smarter group of people, and so I think that, if we make this recommendation, they will know the right timing.

Regardless, I think, if this motion fails, I have a feeling...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The clock is ticking. We don't have that much time. They say, at the end of the Assembly, the departments are just waiting out the Ministers. I would like to see the Minister get moving on this. Will he commit to getting me a timeline and some information on the work that has been done so that I can ensure that is shared with committee? Then we can hopefully press to move this forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I was more encouraged last time I asked the Minister about this, because it sounded like they were moving ahead with this. Now, I hear a lot of "maybe we will do this." I would like some clarification: are concrete steps being taken so that the department can move forward with this therapeutic model at SMCC?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that subclause 1(4) of Bill 6 be deleted and the following substituted:

(4) The following provision set out in Schedule A come into force on the day on which this act receives assent:

Subsection 1(1);

Subsections 5(1), 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 2;

Section 6;

Part 4

Section 71, 72, and 74.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that Schedule A of Bill 6 be amended by adding the following after paragraph 71(j):

(j.1) Prescribing criteria to guide the Minister in considering whether the designation of a person as a vendor is in the public interest for the purpose referred to in subsection 5(1).

Thank you, Mr. Chair.