No

No. 3/21

House of Assembly

Province of Newfoundland & Labrador

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1^st Session – 50^th General Assembly

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Wednesday, April 21^st, 2021

ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS

(a) Statements by Members

(b) Statements by Ministers

(d) Presenting Reports by Standing and Select Committees

(e) Tabling of Documents

(f) Notices of Motion

(g) Answers to questions for which notice has been given

(h) Petitions

ORDERS OF THE DAY

1. – Address in Reply

2. – Committee of Supply

(a) Resolution and Bill No. 3 Respecting the Granting of Interim Supply to Her Majesty.

(Progress)

Third Reading Bills

3. – Third Reading of a Bill - “An Act To Amend The Access To Information And Protection Of Privacy Act, 2015”. (Bill No. 5)

(Justice and Public Safety)

Second Reading Bills

4. – Second Reading of a Bill - “An Act To Amend The Elections Act, 1991”. (Bill No. 1)

(Government House Leader)

5. – Second Reading of a Bill - “An Act Respecting The Protection Of The Health Of Persons Exposed To Radiation And Respecting The Safety Of Persons In Connection With The Operation And Use Of The Electrical And Mechanical Components Of Radiation Producing Equipment And Associated Apparatus”. (Bill No. 6) (Digital Government and Service NL)

6. – Second Reading of a Bill - “An Act To Amend The Vital Statistics Act, 2009”. (Bill No. 7)

(Digital Government and Service NL)

7. – Second Reading of a Bill - “An Act To Amend The Energy Corporation Act And The Hydro Corporation Act, 2007”. (Bill No. 9)

(Industry, Energy and Technology)

8. – Second Reading of a Bill - “An Act To Amend the House Of Assembly Accountability, Integrity And Administration Act”. (Bill No. 10)

(Government House Leader)

9. – Second Reading of a Bill - “An Act To Amend The Children, Youth And Families Act”. (Bill No. 11)

(Minister Responsible for Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation)

MOTIONS

1. − THE HONOURABLE THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND PRESIDENT OF TREASURY BOARD – To Move “That This House Approves in General the Budgetary Policy of the Government”. (Budget Speech)

2. − THE HONOURABLE THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND PRESIDENT OF TREASURY BOARD – To Move that the House Resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole on Supply to Consider a Resolution for the Granting Of Supply to Her Majesty”. (Bill No. 8)

3. − THE HONOURABLE THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE LEADER – To Move:

“THAT notwithstanding Standing Order 8 and the Parliamentary Calendar previously established for 2021, the Parliamentary Calendar for 2021 shall be revised as follows:

THAT this House will adjourn on April 22, 2021 and resume sitting on May 31, 2021;

THAT this House will sit from May 31, 2021 until June 30, 2021 and that no constituency week shall be taken during that sitting time;

THAT this House shall resume sitting on October 18, 2021;

THAT a constituency week shall be taken the week of November 8, 2021;

AND THAT this House shall adjourn on November 18, 2021”.

4. − THE HONOURABLE THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE LEADER – To Move:

“THAT notwithstanding Standing Order 9, this House shall not adjourn at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 but shall continue to sit for the conduct of government business and, if not earlier adjourned, the Speaker shall adjourn the House at midnight”.

5. − THE HONOURABLE THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE LEADER – To Move:

“THAT under the authority of Standing Order 65, the Member for Carbonear-Trinity-Bay de Verde, the Member for Cartwright- L’Anse au Clair, the Member for Conception Bay South, the Member for Harbour Main and the Member for St. John’s Centre shall comprise a committee and, in accordance with that Standing Order shall report, within the first 20 sitting days of appointment, lists of Members to compose the Standing Committees of the House referred to in Standing Order 65(1)”.

6. – MR. BARRY PETTEN (Conception Bay South) – To Move:

“WHEREAS it is imperative that the Province’s election legislation, policies and procedures be reformed properly so Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are never again denied their fundamental right to vote and deprived of the clear information they require to exercise their right;

AND WHEREAS the most responsible way to determine which changes must be made is to first get a thorough, independent and unbiased analysis of what went wrong;

AND WHEREAS it is not appropriate for the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to conduct this review because an investigation of the 2021 election will place under scrutiny the work of the CEO himself and his compliance with the Elections Act, 1991, which requires the CEO “to exercise general direction and supervision over the administrative conduct of elections and to enforce on the part of election officers fairness, impartiality and compliance with this Act”;

AND WHEREAS it is appropriate during such an investigation that the Chief Electoral Officer who oversaw the election be suspended;

AND WHEREAS s.5.3 of the Elections Act, 1991, titled “Removal or suspension,” states: “The Lieutenant-Governor in Council, on resolution of the House of Assembly passed by a majority vote of the members of the House of Assembly actually voting, may suspend or remove the Chief Electoral Officer from office because of an incapacity to act or for misconduct, cause or neglect of duty.”;

AND WHEREAS the House of Assembly on December 4, 2019 voted unanimously to establish a Select Committee on Democratic Reform, which serves as a model of appropriate forum to collaborate on various election reform options before any amendments are brought to the House of Assembly;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that a respected independent individual be appointed to review the conduct of the 2021 general election to determine what went wrong and to report the findings of this investigation to the House within 30 days;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Mr. Bruce Chaulk be suspended as the Chief Electoral Officer during this investigation;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a Select Committee of the House of Assembly on Democratic Reform be struck to collaborate in developing recommendations to reform the Province’s election legislation, policies and procedures in light of the findings of the independent review”.

7. – MR. PAUL LANE (Mount Pearl – Southlands) – To Move:

“WHEREAS the cornerstone of any democratic society is the right for citizens to choose their representatives to serve in the legislature;

WHEREAS the process for electing their representatives must not only be carried out in a fair and impartial manner with all of the appropriate checks and balances to ensure this principle is upheld, it must be perceived as being conducted that way;

WHEREAS the recent NL Provincial General Election has brought serious allegations, numerous concerns and inconsistencies to light including but not necessarily limited to the following:

- Certain individuals knowingly being permitted to vote by telephone in contravention to the Elections Act.

- Ballots being hand delivered by the Chief Electoral Officer to acquaintances and neighbors.

- A number of computer and phone line crashes at Elections NL, including on the final evening to apply for ballots, leading to numerous citizens who applied within the established time line, not receiving a ballot.

- An under-resourcing of Election NL’s Call Center which lead to citizens having to call numerous times to get through to apply for a ballot and some simply giving up out of frustration and not getting a ballot at all.

- Individuals being provided ballots in person and over the phone without any verification of identity and/or address.

- Individuals receiving incomplete ballot kits.

- Individuals receiving multiple ballots.

- Ballots being sent to the wrong civic address.

- Individuals applying for ballots on-line or by telephone not receiving their ballots and upon inquiring with Elections NL being told they had no record of their application and were subsequently denied their right to vote.

- Indigenous citizens being denied their right to vote due to language barriers not addressed by Elections NL

- Numerous concerns with the process implemented by Elections NL relating to the scrutinizing and witnessing of the opening, counting and recording of the ballots.

- Allegations of Elections NL staff taking ballot kits and other related materials to their homes, as well as further allegations of individuals being permitted to print their own ballots which were subsequently accepted by Elections NL.

WHEREAS in a VOCM news story of April 9, 2021 an anonymous whistleblower inside Elections NL was reported as making the following observation:

“The former employee claims that an apparent lack of direction exacerbated an already difficult situation, comparing it to a “three-ring circus.” That included the sudden change in Election NL’s in-house voting software and a registration process that they say left the door open to potential voter fraud.

The worker tells VOCM News duplicate and even triplicate ballots were sent out after some voters reported they hadn’t received their ballots and because of the volume of requests, verification of a voter’s name, age and address became difficult, if not impossible, especially in households with more than one voter.

Their conclusion? “This election should have been delayed,” says the worker, because decisions were made “hastily, with no forethought” and that the election was not “well planned” or “well-executed.”

WHEREAS the Chief Electoral Officer stated publicly prior to the election that Elections NL was prepared and able to successfully conduct a pandemic election and this was obviously not the case.

WHEREAS the Chief Electoral Officer has the ultimate responsibility for the carrying out of fair, democratic elections in the province of NL in accordance with the provisions of the Elections Act, 1991 but preliminary evidence suggests that he has fallen short in this regard;

WHEREAS the Chief Electoral Officer reports directly to and is responsible to this Honorable House;

WHEREAS we as Members of this Honorable House have a responsibility to the people of NL to ensure that all of our Officers of the House of Assembly, including the Chief Electoral Officer, are carrying out their duties in an ethical and competent manner;

AND WHEREAS Section 5.3 of the Elections Act, 1991 which states:

The Lieutenant-Governor in Council, on resolution of the House of Assembly passed by a majority vote of the members of the House of Assembly actually voting, may suspend or remove the Chief Electoral Officer from office because of incapacity to act or for misconduct, cause or neglect of duty.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Assembly approve the following actions:

- Development of a terms of reference for and Initiation of an independent investigation of the recent provincial general election to be carried out by an individual or entity as agreed to by all parties and Independent Members of the House.

- Upon completion of the investigation, tabling and debating of the report in the House of Assembly including whether or not section 5.3 of the Elections Act, 1991 should be applied based on the findings of said report”.

8. – THE HONOURABLE THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE LEADER – To Move pursuant to Standing Order 11(1) that the House not adjourn at 5:30 o’clock p.m. on Thursday, April 22^nd, 2021.

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Published under the authority of the Speaker of the

House of Assembly by the Queen’s Printer