Legislation
The Legislative legacy of the first two Nunavut Assemblies is substantial and fundamental in impact. Okalik introduced the first Nunavut Human Rights Act, which had never been done in the former NWT, and took a principled stand on its need to cover homosexuals. New structures for energy generation and regulation were created with the Qulliq Energy Corporation Act (dividing the assets of the joint Nunavut/NWT Crown Energy utility and creating its Nunavut successor) and the Utilities Rates Review Council Act. Regional Education and Health Boards were abolished and these functions and employees were moved into the departments of Education and Health and Social Services (respectively). These changes and Acts were original creations, scoped for the modest scale and limited capacity of Nunavut.
The consultative process of the Wildlife Act, which implemented and supported the hunting rights set out in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, was an extensive piece of work, frequently attempted but never accomplished in the former Northwest Territories. It took two attempts to gain a consensus on an original, some might say courageous and revolutionary Education Act which was so comprehensive it is still being implemented, and the linguistic, legal and cultural pitfalls of the Official Languages Act and the Inuit Language Protection Act guarantee that these pieces of legislation will be formative documents for many years to come.
Innovative and strong controls on purchasing and youth access were instituted by the Tobacco Control Act and a unique set of timely and accessible remedies was delivered into the hands of Justice of the Peace and community member through the terms of the Family Abuse Intervention Act.
Read more about this topic: Paul Okalik
Famous quotes containing the word legislation:
“The conservative assumes sickness as a necessity, and his social frame is a hospital, his total legislation is for the present distress, a universe in slippers and flannels, with bib and papspoon, swallowing pills and herb-tea.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Strictly speaking, one cannot legislate love, but what one can do is legislate fairness and justice. If legislation does not prohibit our living side by side, sooner or later your child will fall on the pavement and I’ll be the one to pick her up. Or one of my children will not be able to get into the house and you’ll have to say, “Stop here until your mom comes here.” Legislation affords us the chance to see if we might love each other.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression. The argument goes that, if people could see just how many of us there are, some in very important places, the negative stereotype would vanish overnight. ...It is far more realistic to suppose that, if the tenth of the population that is gay became visible tomorrow, the panic of the majority of people would inspire repressive legislation of a sort that would shock even the pessimists among us.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)