5th Northwest Territories Legislative Council

The incumbent Commissioner of the territory at the beginning of the council was Bent Gestur Sivertz. He left office on January 16, 1967, and was replaced by Deputy Commissioner Stuart Milton Hodgson on March 2, 1967.

The Deputy Commissioner at the beginning of the council was Wilfred G. Brown who left office on July 23, 1965. He was replaced by Hodgson in that role who then went on to replace Sivertz as Commissioner. Hodgson was replaced by John Havelock Parker who served as Deputy Commissioner from March 2, 1967, until dissolution.

The first session of the 5th Council resulted in Royal Assent for 15 bills. Among the legislation was a $75 per month Old Age Pension allowance with additional living subsidies for disabled persons. There was a bill that allowed commercial sports to be played on Sunday, a bill appropriating $210,000 from the federal government to fund a first mortgage housing program and an increase in big game hunting quota's for the Mackenzie District.^[1]

The council also passed two motions without debate, the first introduced by appointed member Frank Vallee that called for an amendment to the Northwest Territories Act to increase council representation to 13 men with expansion of electoral districts to the east arctic. A second motion introduced by Robert Poritt called on the federal government to drop its plans to divide the Northwest Territories into two territories.^[1]

The third session was held in Resolute Bay commencing on October 31, 1966. The session included the new eastern arctic members of the council that had been elected in the September by-elections. This session was the first time since 1905 that elected members held a majority.^[2]