Legislative Assembly briefs
MLA challenges confusion over cannabis
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Friday, June 2, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The justice minister had little detail to offer Wednesday about marijuana legislation in the NWT when Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart questioned a previous statement that the federal government's legalization announcement caught jurisdictions off guard in April.
Testart, who rhymed off a list of events dating to September 2015 that would have alerted the GNWT to the legalization of marijuana, challenged the idea that there hasn't been enough discussion or time to consider the issue.
"Northerners need to know what the future is for legal cannabis in the Northwest Territories so they are not unfairly taken advantage of by criminal penalties and so they can maintain their own autonomy around decisions that relate to their communities," said Testart.
Justice Minister Louis Sebert didn't budge on his stance.
"We do not have any preconceptions as to how this legislation should be crafted," he said, explaining the GNWT still plans to collect residents' feedback at public consultations this summer. A working group is also preparing a set of "principles" to take to the public consultation table, including restricting youth access to marijuana and discouraging drug-impaired driving.
Those principles, Testart said, have "basically been around since the 2015 Liberal party platform announcement."
Sebert had no detail on how the GNWT will deal with communities wanting to prohibit marijuana sales.
He also did not answer questions about when the working group on cannabis - which Yellowknifer learned does not keep minutes - was started, or how many times it has met.
Justice department spokesperson Sue Glowach told Yellowknifer in early May the group had met five times.
NWT short-changed: minister
The minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation is flying to Ottawa this weekend to have a face-to-face meeting with her federal counterpart after she says the NWT was "short-changed" in the federal budget.
The 2017 federal budget promised $300 million for Northern housing over the next 11 years, with $36 million going to the NWT.
Meanwhile, the lion's share of that money - $240 million - went to Nunavut. The Yukon received the smallest slice of the cake, with $24 million.
"Nunavut has double ... the amount of needs for housing and got eight times the funding," Cochrane said, when asked by Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green why our territory was given the short end of the stick.
She is scheduled to meet with Jean-Yves Duclos on Monday.
Bill 16 nears finalization
One of the most contentious bills debated this year was scheduled for its third and final reading in the legislative assembly as of yesterday.
Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act, proposes to change the age of access for junior kindergarten from five- to four-years old and reduce the minimum number of instructional hours to 945 per year for students in Grades 1 to 12.
The bill passed its second reading Wednesday night. Members of the assembly carried a motion to amend the proposed legislation to ensure an evaluation of the reduced class hours is done in the next few years.
The amendment states: "The Department of Education, Culture, and Employment shall review the hours of instruction prescribed ... within six months following the conclusion of the 2019-2020 academic year."
That evaluation would take place after the life of the current assembly.
The amendment also requires the education department to consult with the assembly or a committee on the review, and to table a report on its conclusions.
