Eight bills on agenda when legislature resumes Thursday
Eight bills will be on the agenda for MLAs to consider when Nunavut’s legislative assembly begins its spring sitting Thursday.
Of those bills, six are “non-spending” government bills, one is a supplementary budget bill, and the last is a bill deferred by the committee of the whole during the spring sitting, government house leader David Joanasie said in an interview.
He said that of the six government bills, two are from the Department of Justice, one is a joint bill from the Justice and Finance departments, and then there is one bill each for the departments of Health, Economic Development and Transportation, and Community and Government Services.
Joanasie declined to provide further details, saying he’ll leave it to the ministers responsible to do that when the bills are tabled.
“Each minister responsible will be introducing those and what they entail,” Joanasie said.
“We’ll have debates on those and during [the] committee of the whole, but we do have two weeks to cover so I expect, hopefully, we’ll have everything covered over the two weeks.”
The supplementary budget bill is a chance to review government spending.
The capital plan, which deals with items like infrastructure and equipment, was presented in the fall 2023 sitting, and the operations and maintenance budget was the focus of the winter 2024 sitting that ended in March.
“If there’s any budgetary adjustments that need to be made, Finance is the lead department that brings forward those supplementary appropriations, whether it’s for capital or whether it’s for operations and maintenance,” Joanasie said.
The last bill on the agenda is Bill 38, a supplementary operations and maintenance spending bill that was introduced in the winter sitting.
That bill was deferred to the spring sitting by the committee of the whole.
Joanasie said he encourages Nunavummiut to follow the proceedings, which are broadcast live on the legislative assembly’s website.
He said constituents can contact their MLA’s office to share their input on proposed legislation.
“Two weeks sometimes seems very short, but also it could take and seem very long,” Joanasie said.
“I’m looking forward to the engagement, the debates, and working with my colleagues to put [on] another successful legislative sitting.”
Jeff Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News
