Input sought on legislative backlog
A special community meeting is expected to be held soon to allow community members the chance to weigh in on which laws should be triaged by the Kahnawake Legislative Commission (KLC).
There’s currently a backlog of laws at the commission, which led it to seek input from Kahnawa’kehró:non over which ones should be prioritized over the course of the next three years.
As it currently stands, the commission deal with laws brought to it on a first-come, first-served basis, with that being the only factor involved in its triage process, Council chiefs told The Eastern Door. The commission is now looking to reassess how it handles laws on the docket, but wants to hear first from community members before moving forward.
“There are various reasons why certain laws move through the process quicker than others, and once again, it has less to do with the legislative commission than it does with the drafting committees and the portfolio chiefs responsible for those laws,” said Council chief Tonya Perron, second on the legislative portfolio.
The commission is responsible for developing laws in accordance with Kahnawake’s Community Decision Making and Review Process (CDMRP), a process which requires human resources that just aren’t always available, she said.
“All of that, how fast or how slow, or the speed at which that happens, depends on the technical drafting committees, not the commission,” Perron said.
“There’s a number of factors that have led to this waiting list of requests, and the KLC is, in collaboration with the portfolio chiefs, trying to figure out how to best address that,” Perron said.
The commission is now in the process of setting a new three-year agenda. On the docket already are three laws - a residency law, an occupational health and safety law and a tobacco law. There’s space to add two more laws, which are currently waitlisted to the agenda, but which ones will make it to will only be decided after speaking with the community.
“I’ve always been a firm believer that how we make laws in the communities is directly related to how we govern,” said Council chief Jeremiah Johnson, lead on the legislative portfolio. “If we’re going to be transparent about governance, we need to do the same with our legislative branch.”
He said backlogs happen when those bringing forward proposed laws delay in their duties to draft the legislation and consult the community. That’s why he hopes to see the commission move away from its current approach, with an emphasis on what’s in the community’s best interest.
“That’s not necessarily the best process, unfortunately, because we have some laws that are much further along than others. So, to triage them based on when they come is quite unfair,” Johnson said. “It’s not just about what’s important to MCK or for individual units, it’s about what’s important to the community.”
There are currently five laws on the commission’s waitlist. They include a gaming law, a right of way law, an environment protection law, a policing law, and finally, a landlord and tenant law.
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The first two were brought to the commission back in 2022, while the two most recent ones - the policing and landlord and tenant law - date back to the spring and summer, respectively.
Details regarding when and where the special community meeting will be held will be announced shortly, Johnson said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said the legislative commission had been seeking feedback pertaining to a four-year period. In fact, it is a three-year period. Further, laws are generally treated on a first-come, first-served basis by the commission, as mentioned by Council chiefs; a previous version of this article suggested this was the sole factor. The commission has since clarified this point. The Eastern Door regrets these errors.
