Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier. It gets back to my Member’s statement where I talked about the state of consensus government in our Territory. The two events that I spoke of in my Member’s statement, both the proposed changes to the supp health benefits and more recently the initiative on board reform, these two issues just bring to light that there are problems with our system of government here in the Northwest Territories. I mentioned the fact that Regular Members need to form consensus. When we come to work every day that has to happen. But in Cabinet that doesn’t seem to be the case. The first question I have for the Premier is, why does Cabinet solidarity exist in our system of government today?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We could probably get into a long orientation about the structure of this government when it first moved up from Ottawa to the Northwest Territories. The Westminster Style of government that this is based on, yes, we call it consensus for the way we share information and work with committees and that we don’t have political parties, but the structure of the operation of this House itself is still based on those fundamental principles of Westminster Style of governance. So that’s one of the fundamental pieces in place. We share information as we do through budget, legislation, policy, and, as highlighted here, we’ll continue to build on that through a set of protocols that will help clarify the relationship we can have with Members of this Assembly. But it takes everybody to work in a consensus style.
I look forward to the work that’s underway in what the Premier was saying, but I believe we do have to work together. We have to stop driving these wedges between one another. The divisiveness has to stop. The adversarial approach has to stop. The way that I can see that really stopping is with Cabinet; and Cabinet having more free votes, less Cabinet solidarity, Cabinet Ministers able to speak their own mind. I don’t know if there’s anything written where in our system of government, in a consensus style of government, true consensus, there isn’t any Cabinet solidarity and there shouldn’t be any Cabinet solidarity. I’d like to ask the Premier whether or not he would investigate whether or not we could take away this Cabinet solidarity and allow Ministers more freedom to speak their mind in this House.
The process we operate under is one that has been existing for quite a number of years. In fact, many of the aboriginal governments in the Northwest Territories and aboriginal people say that this style is not representative of the people that live here in the North and that we should take a look at it. In fact, a number of processes were undergone. The 13th Assembly started some work; I believe it started in the 12th Assembly and went on into the 13th Assembly. In fact, I have recently spoken with the Dene national chief, Bill Erasmus, about looking at a process that would look at the Constitution, one, and a constitution of the Northwest Territories because there is not one right now. We operate under the NWT Act. First Nations and aboriginal governments working with self-government arrangements with the federal government, and we’re at the table. I would say that I agree that the consensus style of government and the system or, as some Members say, maybe the personalities at the table trying to make this work, we’ve been having quite a bit of difficulty. We need to take the next step to function and get things done for the people of the Northwest Territories. So I would say here’s the opportunity. Let’s take it up and let’s agree and let’s approach the aboriginal governments of the Northwest Territories and set up a new process where we can review how the Northwest Territories will be governed overall.
I don’t know if that necessarily answered my question. I think the Premier is right in one regard. When you do have strong personalities in a system like we have today, just because we have the system today doesn’t make it right. But if you have seven individuals on that side of the House and you’ve got two or three Members that pretty much run the show and others aren’t allowed to express their opinions or speak their mind, that causes problems. Like I said earlier, we want to be able to work together. When we go to P and P in the morning every Member is allowed to speak their mind. When we come to the House we’re allowed to speak our mind. And my belief is that if we had a more open system of government where everybody in this room, all 19 of us --18, sorry, Mr. Speaker -- could speak their mind.
I’d like to ask the Premier, how does he think this is going to work? What’s his plan going forward on trying to make this work? Does it include loosening up the control that they have on Cabinet?
The Member has a number of times used language in this House that I guess to some degree would be insulting to the ability of the Cabinet elected by this Assembly.
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The simple fact that we work on initiatives together, we’ve put items out on the table, and, yes, Members are free to speak their mind, but sometimes there’s little fact to when they speak on the issues around the table. We put proposals on the table. The Member said he’s willing to work in a consensus style and let’s put the personalities aside. Yet again today he fires off with much more rhetoric than substance. The fact is we’ve put an offer on the table. I’ve reached out to Members to say let’s make this work.
I think even a bigger opportunity here is if the concern about consensus government is real -- and I believe it is -- that we have to look at a structure within the Northwest Territories that does make sense. And it will be more than protocols that will have to be put in place. That’s where we look at a new constitutional process that involves aboriginal governments that we put in place that makes something happen for the Northwest Territories, not just recommendations.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It wasn’t my intent to insult any of the Cabinet Ministers over there. Completely not my intent. That was not my intent and I apologize if some Cabinet Ministers took that the wrong way. What I’m saying is we have the ability on this side of the House. Some of you have served on this side of the House. We share ideas. We respect one another. When we come into this forum we can’t do that. There’s no free-flowing dialogue because Cabinet Ministers cannot speak like Regular Members. What I’m saying is we need to take a look at how this government operates and we need to allow Cabinet Ministers the opportunity in this House to speak their own mind. I think that gets us back to the spirit and intent of a true consensus system of government. Again, I’ll ask the Premier, how is the Premier going to work with Regular Members to allow something like that to happen? It’s not rhetoric; I’m just asking how Regular Members are going to be plugged into this.
It is one of the things that’s always been, I guess at some stage, a point of contention for Members when they consider running for a Cabinet position. It does impact your ability to speak freely about your constituency issues. That doesn’t limit the debate that happens at the Cabinet table about initiatives, but the simple fact that the process we’re involved in right now is fundamental in the existing framework and establishment we operate in. If we want to change that I think it is so fundamental that if we want to change that structure, then we should really be talking about an overall process that would involve governance in the Northwest Territories in those structures here. I wouldn’t say necessarily party politics. Is it a way of consensus government with aboriginal leadership at the table at the same time? What does that take in? I think we have now reached the stage of our evolution in the Northwest Territories, we have one signed self-government agreement in the Northwest Territories, we know that’s going to be the base and others will work to that or higher, so we have that in place. We know our structures and the limitations of our structures. So here’s the opportunity to take a real run at what the next government might have to look like or might look like or that they might work on implementing. I think in our time frame the best we’re going to be able to do is what I’ve reached out with as let’s come up with some protocols on the communication, the information we share, the involvement at committee levels, whether it’s joint Cabinet committees, things of that nature. We’re working on that and we’re working with the Members of this Assembly in trying to come up with a process that will work, and work better for the time frame we have left. Beyond that we will, I believe, need to look at the bigger picture.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
