Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about past efforts to get northern issues on the table for discussion and certainly commitments during federal campaigns. In the past, former-Premier Handley has done this as well as, I’d like to note, even Premier Roland during the last election followed suit on the particular issue of raising questions to get responses from both candidates who are striving for that much coveted seat of Western Arctic and of course getting it from the national parties.
My question for the Premier is: does he intend to follow this particular practice if an election is called in the next while, while Members are between sittings of the Assembly of the House, and how will he discuss this particular issue with Members to get their points of view to ensure that the right questions are asked to the candidates in these parties on commitments for the North?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Indeed we have made it a practice as the Government of the Northwest Territories when a federal election is on, to put our positions forward on where our key concerns lie. We’ve done that, for example, around climate change and our infrastructure in the North. We start by using the goals and vision of the Assembly and follow up through clarifying it as we have usually, through a Caucus process. I’d be prepared to go to Members with what our positions are existing, as we have them, and follow up with e-mails so that if an election were to be called we’d have some framework that we could send out to potential candidates.
That’s the exact type of answer I’m certainly looking for and certainly constituents of mine. Recognizing that the Assembly is a non-partisan Assembly, it makes it very difficult to support one party over the other.
Would the Premier have any specific plans on how to articulate the answers provided by both the national parties and the individual candidates to make sure that, first of all, our questions are out there and certainly that the answers are meeting the needs of Northerners? That’s part of the issue out there, is people want to know what the national parties will bring to the table to show that they’re committed to supporting the North.
We’ll follow up. Again, we don’t know if an election is going to be called, when an election is going to be called and all that timing, but we have made it a practice as the Government of the Northwest Territories to get our issues out there so that they can be discussed, part of commitments made, hopefully, by potential candidates in a federal election, and we follow it up with Members in writing, I believe, to that rule. We’ll continue to use the same practice. Thank you.
It may be difficult to answer today, but I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing some creativity from the Premier on this particular issue. How do you think we could get the commitments made by the national parties out there to our northern citizens? I want to make sure that they earn the seat of Western Arctic. I don’t want anybody to get an easy ride and realize that the Government of the Northwest Territories is standing by supporting either one candidate and not another or, of course, making sure that the people have a full digest as to the commitments people are willing to make from a national point of view of to how to support this Legislature and the people of the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, I wouldn’t mind hearing some possible ideas as to how the Premier can get that message out from the federal parties, if there is an election called, on their clear commitments on how they plan to support the North. Thank you.
Again, because, as the Member stated, we’re non-partisan in this Assembly, we have the same questions go to the candidates and we follow it up with the leaders of the parties with our positions. Much of the work on implementation to see the proof in the pudding, I think what the Member is looking for, is something we make it our job as a government to follow through on. Our request for infrastructure commitment requests, for some political leadership on some files like climate change, like infrastructure, like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, like the pipeline. Those things, again, we follow through with and we follow through with notifying Members. I believe we had a practice of trying to put it out there for responses and, again, we’ll look to the practice and precedent we’ve set in the responses received. Thank you.
Your final supplementary question, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’d like to define the Western Arctic seat is a much coveted seat by all the parties in their desperation to get a majority. I wouldn’t want to give them an easy ride and assume that it will go one way or the other, I think they should fight hard and earn that seat, Mr. Speaker.
I guess my last question to the Premier would be: would the Premier see either good value of the territorial government publicizing all answers provided by national parties on northern particular issues as they respond to questions from this government about how they plan to commit and further support this government on its endeavours to work for the people of the Northwest Territories? That’s the kind of thing that I think the everyday citizen of our North deserves, to find out what the actual parties are willing to do, because, Mr. Speaker, elections don’t come every day and we want clear commitments we can hold their feet to the fire. Even though it’s one seat, they all want this seat, and it’s an important one we should consider and not forget. Thank you.
The Member does have a flair for making statements in this Assembly. Clearly, as the Member is a veteran of elections and election processes, he knows that any election process is a very difficult one, whether it is at a constituency level for the Legislative Assembly or the bigger picture of the Northwest Territories. Of course, we have an interest, as representatives of the people of the North, to try to get the best voice out there and a commitment to what we’re trying to do as the Legislative Assembly. We have, I believe, established a past practice of communicating with potential candidates, leaders of those parties, and then providing that information to residents of the North, so we’ll follow past practice. Thank you.
The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
