Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly List
| |
---|---|
20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly [2] | |
Type | |
Type | |
Leadership | |
Shane Thompson since December 7, 2023 | |
R.J. Simpson since 8 December 2023 | |
Structure | |
Seats | 19 |
Political groups | None
|
Elections | |
Last election | November 14, 2023 |
Next election | on or before October 4, 2027 |
Meeting place | |
Legislative Building, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada | |
Website | |
www |
The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, or Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories (with Northwest hyphenated as North-West until 1906), [3] [4] is the legislature and the seat of government of Northwest Territories in Canada. [5] It is a unicameral elected body that creates and amends law in the Northwest Territories. Permanently located in Yellowknife since 1993, the assembly was founded in 1870 and became active in 1872 with the first appointments from the Government of Canada.
Until 2014, the assembly was officially defined under federal law as "Legislative Council". However, under Northwest Territories territorial law, it was defined as "Legislative Assembly". The federal name was changed when the Northwest Territories Act was rewritten in 2014. Under different periods of its history it has alternated names.
Members of the Legislative Assembly are sworn in by the commissioner of the Northwest Territories.
The Legislative Assembly was first known as the Temporary North-West Council and was created in 1870. The first appointments to the council were made on December 28, 1872. The Temporary Council was dissolved in 1876 and a new permanent council was appointed and moved to the new capital of Fort Livingstone in 1876. The council moved to Battleford a year later based on the planned location there of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The very first election to the Assembly would take place on March 23, 1881, as Lawrence Clarke was elected to represent the electoral district of Lorne. In 1883 the Assembly moved south to Regina based on amendments to the route of the railway. The first territory-wide election took place on September 15, 1885, known as the 1885 Northwest Territories election.
Three years later the first general election took place. All the voting members of the Assembly were elected for the first time, and an elected speaker took office. The Lieutenant Governor still had executive authority however and appointed and ran the cabinet. After the second general election in 1891 the first fully elected Assembly without any appointed members. The Assembly achieved Responsible Government for the first time in October 1897 as the Lieutenant Governor appointed Frederick Haultain as the first Premier to form a government. Robert Brett became the first Leader of the official opposition and party lines were roughly drawn based on Conservatives and Liberals.
The Haultain government lobbied for Government of Canada for provincial powers for the Northwest Territories. In response on September 1, 1905, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier out of the southern populated portion of the territories.
The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly served as the first court of law in the Northwest Territories from 1876 until the creation of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in 1887. Appointed members of the council served as stipendiary magistrates who would travel the territories and oversee legal cases when the legislature was not sitting. In 1887 the Northwest Territories moved to a new system that assigned judges to judicial districts and separated the legal and judicial branches.
After the creation of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the remainder of the Northwest Territories was too sparsely populated by enfranchised voters to justify holding elections. The territory reverted to its confederation entry status. A new council was set up in Ottawa consisting of a Commissioner—the effective replacement of the Lieutenant Governor—and four appointed members.
Frederick White was appointed as the first Commissioner and did not recall the council to sit during his time in office. During this time, the Territories were run by the federal Department of Mines and Resources. The first session of the Council of the Northwest Territories took place in 1921. The council members were bureaucrats appointed from the Interior Ministry and were not resident citizens of the territory.
In 1939, the Yellowknife Administration District was created to provide services within 25 miles of Yellowknife. However, it was not until 1947 that John G. McNiven was appointed to represent the district. McNiven was the first member appointed to the council from north of the 60th parallel.
In 1951 the council held its first general election in 49 years. The fifth general election elected three members from the District of Mackenzie. The old council was completely dissolved and five members were appointed along with the three elected representatives.
The council gradually gained more powers back from the federal government as the population in the territory grew. In 1967 the Carrothers Commission moved the territorial capital from Ottawa to Yellowknife and for the first time elected members represented all parts of the territories. In 1975 the Legislative Assembly became fully elected, and the first elected speaker since 1905, David Searle, presided over the Assembly.
Commissioner John Parker gave up his powers of running the executive council and appointed George Braden as leader of the government and the first premier since 1905. The model of responsible government that was used this time around was known as consensus government. The executive council or cabinet forms government while all the regular members form an unofficial opposition.
The modern consensus government model is inherently non-partisan and serves effectively as a constant minority government. The legislature uses this model up to the current day; the same model of government is also used in the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, although Canada's other territorial legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Yukon, uses a traditional partisan politics model.
The consensus government model has received criticism on various grounds, including that it hampers long-term political and economic development in the territory because the lack of political parties mean that there is no mechanism to carry over a political agenda from one assembly to the next; [6] that it complicates the ability of less wealthy citizens to serve in the assembly because the lack of political parties means that election candidates must raise all of their campaign funds on their own; [7] that it prevents the voters from being able to demand or vote for systemic change, since there is no mechanism to replace an ineffective or underperforming government with another alternative; [6] and that it hampers efforts to improve diversity in representation, such as the election of more women and ethnic minorities to the legislature. [8]
In 2018, MLA Kieron Testart introduced an amendment to the territorial Elections Act to permit the introduction of party politics in the legislative assembly, [9] but his motion received no support from other MLAs and was dropped. [7] In 2019, he planned to organize a group of ideologically aligned MLA candidates in the 2019 Northwest Territories general election into a "Liberal Democratic" slate, [10] but backed off of the plan after it was leaked to the press. [11]
The building that has housed the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly has changed many times since it was founded. The first building was the original Manitoba Legislature in Fort Garry. After the council moved to Fort Livingstone it was housed in the Swan River Barracks used by the North-West Mounted Police.
The first building built for the needs of the Assembly was NWT Government House in Battleford. That building also served as a residence for the Lieutenant Governor. In 1883 the Assembly moved to Regina. The Territorial Administration building was built to accommodate the growing Assembly and used until 1905.
After the creation of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the capital was moved to Ottawa and the council sessions took place in an office building on Sparks Street. When the council sessions returned to the territories, they were held in any infrastructure suitable as they traveled from community to community.
After the capital was moved to Yellowknife in 1967 a temporary site for the Legislative Assembly was used until the new Legislature building was finished in 1993. The design of the current Legislature building was created by Pin/Taylor Architects company from Yellowknife.
The membership of the 20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, was selected in the 2023 Northwest Territories general election on November 14, 2023. Each member represents one electoral district.
The territory has fixed election date legislation that ensures elections are held every four years on the first Monday in October. [12]
The legislature since 1905 is a non-partisan body and all members run and sit as independents.
Jane Weyallon Armstrong's by-election win in Monfwi on July 27, 2021, during the 19th Legislative Assembly, saw the Northwest Territories become the first provincial or territorial government in Canada with a majority of its membership identifying as female. [13] At the time, the territory was also lead by the nation's only female premier, Caroline Cochrane. [14]
The current membership is as follows:
The seven ministers of the Government of the NWT are found in the Executive Council of the Northwest Territories.
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately 1,127,711.92 km2 (435,412.01 sq mi) and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of the three territories in Northern Canada. Its estimated population as of the second quarter of 2024 is 44,920. Yellowknife is the capital, most populous community, and the only city in the territory; its population was 20,340 as of the 2021 census. It became the territorial capital in 1967, following recommendations by the Carrothers Commission.
The 2003 Northwest Territories general election was held on November 24, 2003, to elect the 19 members of the Legislative Assembly.
Anthony Wilfred James Whitford was a Canadian politician, who served as the commissioner of the Northwest Territories from 2005 to 2010.
The 1902 North-West Territories general election, occurred on 21 May 1902 and was the fifth general election in the history of the North-West Territories, Canada. It was held to elect 35 Members of the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories.
The North-West Territories Liberal Party was a short-lived branch of the Liberal Party of Canada in the North-West Territories.
The North-West Territories Liberal-Conservative Party also known formally as the Liberal-Conservative Association prior to 1903 and the Territorial Conservative Association after 1903, was a short lived political party in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The party was active between 1897 and 1905. It was a branch of the federal Conservative Party of Canada.
The history of Northwest Territories capital cities begins with the purchase of the Territories by Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, and includes a varied and often difficult evolution. Northwest Territories is unique amongst the other provinces and territories of Canada in that it has had seven capital cities in its history. The territory has changed the seat of government for numerous reasons, including civil conflict, development of infrastructure, and a history of significant revisions to its territorial boundaries.
The 2007 Northwest Territories general election took place on October 1, 2007. Nineteen members were elected to the Legislative Assembly from single member districts conducted under first-past-the-post voting system.
Vince Steen was a politician. He served as a municipal councilor of Tuktoyaktuk and later became mayor. Afterwards he was also a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. Prior to politics he was also civil servant, heavy equipment operator and a licensed watercraft operator.
Robert R. McLeod is a former Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories from 2007 to 2019, and served as the 12th premier of the Northwest Territories, from October 26, 2011 to October 24, 2019.
The 17th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly was established by the results of the 2011 Northwest Territories general election on October 3, 2011. It was the 25th sitting of the Assembly in the territory's history. The Assembly was dissolved in 2015.
The 2015 Northwest Territories general election was held November 23, 2015. Under the territory's fixed election date legislation, the election was supposed to be held on October 5, 2015, however, since the federal election date of October 19, 2015, overlapped with that date, the N.W.T. government moved the date of the territorial election. The election selected 19 members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.
Caroline Cochrane is a former Canadian politician, who served as the 13th premier of the Northwest Territories, from 2019 to 2023. She is the second female premier of the Northwest Territories after Nellie Cournoyea, who served from 1991 to 1995.
Julie Green is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 2015 election. She represented the electoral district of Yellowknife Centre. Green was re-elected in 2019. She was acclaimed to the Executive Council in August 2020 and was subsequently appointed Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Responsible for Seniors and Minister Responsible for Persons with Disabilities.
Kieron Testart is a Canadian politician serving in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, representing the riding of Range Lake. He is currently serving his second non-consecutive term, having first been elected in the 2015 to the riding of Kam Lake in 2015. Defeated in Kam Lake in the 2019 election by Caitlin Cleveland, Testart sought and won the open seat of Range Lake in the 2023 election four years later.
The 2019 Northwest Territories general election was held on October 1, 2019. Nineteen members were elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.
Rylund Johnson is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 2019 election. He represented the electoral district of Yellowknife North.
The 2023 Northwest Territories general election was held on November 14, 2023. Nineteen members were elected to the 20th Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly. The Assembly is run on a consensus government system, in which all MLAs sit as independents and are not organized into political parties.