The NWT government has opened a public comment period on two more pieces of proposed legislation considered central to its public safety agenda.
Three separate bills are part of Premier RJ Simpson’s commitment to address safety in small northern communities.
Simpson has said the first – Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods legislation, known as Scan – can improve community safety by allowing neighbours to make complaints to provincial and territorial authorities. Those authorities can then target and shut down properties where activities like drug trafficking may be occurring.
That legislation would be separate from existing criminal law and police enforcement, which requires a higher standard of proof.
Similar legislation elsewhere has run into trouble regarding its constitutionality.
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The other two pieces of legislation are a Civil Forfeiture Act – allowing property connected to crime to be frozen or taken away from someone – and a Trespass Act, which the NWT currently lacks.
Public feedback related to a new Trespass Act took place earlier in the fall. Feedback has now opened in relation to the Scan and civil forfeiture proposals.
You can fill out online surveys until November 28 or attend public meetings listed on the GNWT’s website. There are also online meetings in late November.
Written submissions can be sent by email by November 28.
More detail about both proposed pieces of legislation is available in a GNWT backgrounder.
