Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know some Members will be doing a reply to the opening address today and I have chosen today for my Member’s statement to say thank you to some of my colleagues on the other side of the House. I will be making another statement tomorrow, but today I want to focus on those who served on Cabinet in the 16th Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, starting with Premier Roland, who I have had the privilege of serving in this Legislature with for 16 years. There are only three of us who can say we’ve been here that long. I want to thank Premier Roland for the leadership that he’s provided to this Assembly and to this government. I always had confidence that when he was dealing with matters of the Northwest Territories, that he would present our case in a very articulate, intelligent, and passionate way and I do thank him for that.
To Minister Miltenberger, who is not... Oh, I shouldn’t say where he is, but anyway. To Minister Miltenberger, who I also had the privilege of serving with for 16 years, I’d like to thank him as well, and to tell the people of the Northwest Territories that this is a Minister who is well known for his very, very hard work ethic and has introduced and carried to fruition many meaningful things in this government. I know people who are interested in the environment know that’s a huge passion of Mr. Miltenberger, and some of the policies and programs that he’s put in place will serve this territory well for many, many years to come.
To Minister Michael McLeod, defending some issues in this government that put him under fire many times when he stood up but he never lost his cool, never lost his professional demeanour. Although riddled with many, many questions, I was always amazed at how he could continue to stand up to question after question and provide answers in a way that was professional and also doing a very good job of heading up the departments that he did.
To Minister Bob McLeod, I’d like to thank him as well. A former bureaucrat. I love the way you could see that translated into his communications skills. When you send an e-mail to Minister Bob McLeod, you know that you would get an answer right away because he was used to that modern communication, which I can’t say everybody was. He went out of his way, and to great effort, to keep Regular Members informed of what was going on. I always appreciated that. When I would see his name come up on my e-mail there, I’d know that he was updating us on something important that we needed to know.
To Minister Robert C. McLeod, I’d also like to thank him. A somewhat shoot-from-the-hip-but-tell-it-like-it-is kind of a person who does not mince words and maybe isn’t a true politician in that sense, but certainly we understand him. We know he speaks from the heart and we do appreciate that as well.
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Lastly, I would like to thank Minister Jackson Lafferty who took on two very important departments in our government, two in our social envelope, two very challenging departments: Education and Justice. I know that he had a passion, as well, for these two departments. Like I said, very challenging departments but he took them on. He did well and he served all of us very, very well in these capacities.
On behalf of Hay River South, I would like to thank this Cabinet, these Ministers, for the way that they treated my constituents and the constituents of the North.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
