BILL NO. 47
(as introduced)
4th Session, 61st General Assembly
Nova Scotia
61 Elizabeth II, 2012
Modernizing Government Act
The Honourable Jamie Baillie
Cumberland South
First Reading: April 25, 2012
Second Reading:
Third Reading:
Explanatory Note
(b) requires the Auditor General to prepare an updated report of the Province's finances before each general election;
(c) permits a person to vote in a provincial election at any polling station in Nova Scotia on ordinary polling day;(d) requires the Governor in Council to appoint a person with a disability to the Election Commission;
(e) requires provincial by-elections to be called within 3 months of a vacancy and to be held within 6 months of a vacancy;(f) requires the House of Assembly to debate petitions presented to it with at least 10,000 signatures if the subject-matter of the petition is within provincial jurisdiction;(g) requires the panel reviewing MLAs indemnities, allowances and salaries to be independent; and(h) prohibits a former MLA from being a lobbyist for three years following ceasing to be an MLA.An Act to Modernize
the Government of Nova Scotia
Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:
1 This Act may be cited as the Modernizing Government Act.
2 Chapter 5 of the Acts of 2011, the Elections Act, is amended by adding immediately preceding Section 29 the following Sections:
(2) Subject to subsection (3), each subsequent general election must be held on the Tuesday determined pursuant to subsection (1) in each fourth calendar year following ordinary polling day for the immediately preceding general election.
(3) Nothing in this Section affects the powers of the Lieutenant Governor, including the power of the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the House of Assembly at the discretion of the Lieutenant Governor.
28B Sixty days before a general election held pursuant to subsection 28A(1) or (2), the Auditor General shall prepare an updated opinion on the state of the public finances of the Province and file the report with the Clerk of the House of Assembly.
3 Chapter 5 is further amended by adding immediately after Section 123 the following Section:
(a) whose name is on an official list of electors for a polling division; or
(b) whose name is not on an official list of electors for any polling division but is eligible to be added to an official list of electors,
is entitled, on ordinary polling day, to vote at any polling station in the Province, whether or not in the constituency in which the person is entitled to vote, and Section 123 applies mutatis mutandis.
(2) Where a person votes pursuant to subsection (1) at a polling station in a constituency other than the one in which the person is, but for this Section, entitled to vote,
(a) the person may only vote for a candidate in the constituency in which the person is entitled to vote;
(b) the person shall vote using a write-in ballot and Sections 101 to 108 apply mutatis mutandis; and
(c) the ballot must be counted in the constituency in which the person is entitled to vote.
4 Subsection 356(2) of Chapter 5 is amended by
(a) striking out "and" at the end of clause (a); and
(b) adding immediately after clause (a) the following clause:
5 Subsection 8(1) of Chapter 1 of the Revised Statutes, 1989 (1992 Supplement), the House of Assembly Act, is repealed.
6 Subsection 10(1) of Chapter 1 is amended by
(a) striking out "six" in the third line and substituting "three"; and
(b) striking out "twelve" in the fourth line and substituting "six".
7 Chapter 1 is further amended by adding immediately after Section 36 the following headings and Section:
8 Section 45A of Chapter 1, as enacted by Chapter 9 of the Acts of 2006 and amended by Chapter 40 of the Acts of 2007 and Chapter 5 of the Acts of 2009, is further amended by adding immediately after subsection (2) the following subsection:
9 Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2001, the Lobbyists' Registration Act, is amended by adding immediately after Section 3 the following Section:
10 Subsection 18(1) of Chapter 34, as amended by Chapter 57 of the Acts of 2010, is further amended by adding "Section 3A," immediately after "with" in the first line.
This page and its contents published by the Office of the Legislative Counsel, Nova Scotia House of Assembly, and © 2012 Crown in right of Nova Scotia. Created April 25, 2012. Send comments to legc.office@novascotia.ca.
