‘Bona fide’ changes to Nunavut law as legislature sitting wraps up

Updated June 4 at 5:15 p.m. ET

A modernization of Nunavut’s pharmacy profession laws was one of five bills approved as the Nunavut legislative assembly’s spring sitting came to a close Tuesday.

MLAs met in Iqaluit for nine days for the second-last sitting before Nunavummiut head to the polls in the Oct. 27 territorial election. Commissioner Eva Aariak presided over the assent ceremony to sign the bills they passed into law.

The Pharmacy Profession Act is what Health Minister John Main has described as an “modernization” of Nunavut’s pharmacy laws.

It allows Nunavut pharmacists to administer vaccines and prescribe treatments for minor illnesses. It also establishes a pharmacist registration system, and outlines a complaints and disciplinary process, among other provisions.

A supplementary appropriations bill adds $4.2 million in capital budget spending across the territory’s departments of justice, family services, and executive and intergovernmental affairs for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.

The capital budget for the current fiscal year, which totals more than $350 million, was originally tabled in October during the fall sitting.

Another bill replaces Latin text with plain language across several territorial laws, such as “bona fide” with “good faith” in acts such as the Business Corporations Act and Conflict of Interest Act, and “ex parte” with “without notice” in several acts.

A lengthy bill that outlines regulations of early learning and child care centres in Nunavut was approved and received assent after it was initially tabled in the winter sitting.

Finally, MLAs passed a bill that adjusts which documents are published in the Nunavut Gazette. For example, notices of incorporations will now be published “on a website maintained by or for the registrar” instead of in the Nunavut Gazette.

Some bills didn’t pass this assembly. Notably, a proposed amendment to the Vital Statistics Act would have added a non-binary sex option on birth certificates. That would have allowed people who do not identify as male or female to change their birth certificates to that third sex option if they chose to do so.

Main said he was hoping the bill would pass this sitting because June is Pride Month.

“Support for gender-diverse individuals, it’s very sensitive and it actually is connected to our work on suicide prevention,” Main told reporters last week.

“Individuals who are gender-diverse and are not adequately supported can be at risk of adverse mental health outcomes including suicide attempts or suicide.”

However, that bill and two others tabled this sitting await review from the standing committee on legislation.

Along with the signing of bills, MLAs offered their parting messages.

Notably, Minister David Akeeagok gave early notice that he won’t seek re-election this fall as the MLA for Quttiktuk. He wants prospective candidates to start talking with their families about possibly replacing him.

Other statements from MLAs Tuesday included celebrations of high school graduates, tributes to individual family and community members, and talk of fishing derbies.

Speaker Tony Akoak thanked legislative staff and the chamber’s Inuktitut and Innuinaqtun interpreters for their work.

“We have had a very good, productive couple of weeks of meetings in the house,” he said.

“Have a safe journey home.”

Note: This story was updated to include a fifth bill that was passed related to early learning and child care centres.