Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask my questions to the Premier and it is about the Deh Cho Bridge. Mr. Speaker, in the statement that the Premier made, it said: “First, I want to assure Members and the public that assuming responsibility for the Deh Cho Bridge Project will not change the GNWT’s fiscal situation or the GNWT’s ability to pay for programs and services.”

Mr. Speaker, that is a very categorical statement and doesn’t really take into account anything unforeseen. As my colleague Mr. Ramsay had pointed out, there have been some unexpected occurrences with the Deh Cho Bridge...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 8-16(5), Supplementary Appropriation No. 2, 2010-2011 (Infrastructure Expenditures), be now concluded and that Tabled Document 8-16(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I feel like I have already said so much about the Deh Cho Bridge. It is probably the single topic that I have spoken to most in this Legislature in my 15 years that I have been an MLA. I don’t know what good it is to rehash everything that has already been brought up by other Members here today except I do feel obligated to my constituents to be on the record in this matter.

I think Mr. Abernethy did an excellent job of summarizing the situation where we find ourselves today.

Mr. Chairman, if we could argue that the bridge over the Mackenzie River is a useful piece of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sorry, dumb question there. I forgot the Taltson was $700 million and I guess that is a bit outside of our debt limit. What do we do -- this is a hypothetical question -- I was going to say what do we do if something unforeseen comes up that’s in the millions of dollars? If we had brought the Deh Cho Bridge onto our books through a normal process similar to the Inuvik school, if we had brought that money onto our books in a similar fashion, this would be three or four years’ worth of our capital budget. Is there any possibility that we could still do that, understanding...

Mr. Speaker, if we leave the Deh Cho Bridge debt on the books long term and that becomes part of our borrowing limit for the long haul, does the Premier not see that as really tying the hands of this government since it does not affect our fiscal capacity and does not affect our ability to deliver programs and services, it doesn’t anticipate anything unforeseen and it limits our borrowing ability? Does the Premier not see that as affecting our fiscal situation?

Mr. Speaker, we have a wonderful Territory full of amazing opportunities. Mr. Speaker, the Premier has alluded to going to other jurisdictions, and I’ve been in that same situation where they’re almost in awe, you know, that we get together and we make it sound like we hammer everything out until everybody agrees when, in fact, that’s not exactly the way it is. Maybe it sounds a little more rosy than it is.

From the government’s side, normally the government is a governing party and they have party discipline and they have party protection, they have a party platform going into an election...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to talk a little bit about consensus government. I’m not going to do justice to this very, very big topic in two and a half minutes, Mr. Speaker, but coming up on 15 years working in consensus government, Mr. Speaker, I am starting to not think that this is the best way to govern our Territory. I don’t want to be particularly critical of anybody or anything, it is the system in which we work, but, Mr. Speaker, there are some downfalls.

Mr. Speaker, the consensus government purports to have significant cooperation between all Members. We come...

I do apologize. This is a big topic and maybe it was the wrong time to start it on the last day of session, but, Mr. Speaker, the idea of party politics, unfortunately, we have little snippets of party politics mingled, hybridized with this consensus government. For example, Cabinet solidarity; you know the Cabinet is always going to stick together. When you come over to this side, we’re not allowed to be called the opposition, just the accountability side of the House, Mr. Speaker. It’s an awkward situation, because that solidarity does not exist on this side of the House. And the balance of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about some of the downside of consensus government. Maybe it isn’t that consensus government is all bad, but maybe the Territory has evolved and maybe a change from consensus government would be a natural stepping stone, a natural evolution in the way that we govern ourselves here in the Territory.

I am not sure where changes to the way we govern ourselves would actually begin. I’m hoping that the Premier could help me out with this, because all of our systems and committee structures and rules of the House and everything are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to compliment the Department of ENR on their campaign to encourage people to recycle milk beverage containers. I think it’s very catchy. I think it’s Wash and Squash. There are very colourful ads all over the place encouraging our people in the Northwest Territories to add these beverage containers to the list of containers that we pay a deposit on and then receive a refund on when we take them back. It is very catchy and I think it’s catching the eye of people.

However, I want to thank the Member for Weledeh for bringing forward this motion, because I think...