Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked a little bit about consensus government. The headline in today’s Yellowknifer is “McLeod Reigns Supreme,” with a picture of Premier McLeod above the headline. I think we need to maybe inform the media a little bit about how consensus government works, because we elect people to that side of the House and I don’t think that they are reigning. I think we have honoured them with the role of leadership in our government and we want to be there to help meet the needs of our people together, together with them.
I’d like to ask Premier McLeod if he has a theory or a way that he could see that we could do more to work together as 19 Members of a consensus government and how that might be reflected in his communication to his new Cabinet in the way that we do things – for example, when there are events to attend, there’s travel that Ministers undertake – so that we can incorporate more of the expertise and the skills and the knowledge of the Members on this side of the House.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recognize that the newspapers have to sell papers, and that wasn’t a quote of mine.
My approach always has been to involve as many Members as possible. Whenever I travelled as a Minister, I always invited some of the Members along. A lot of times when we went to the United States, I’d bring at least two Members along. On several occasions where I was invited for speaking engagements, if I couldn’t go, I would ask a Member to cover for me. On trips I couldn’t go, I’d also ask Members to attend on my behalf.
This is an item that we put on our agenda for the Cabinet retreat, where we’ll all agree how we will be able to work together with all of you, and how to communicate with each other and how to work together to get things done. A lot of it is sharing of information, listening, responding quickly to questions and queries, and providing information as requested. So we’ll be discussing all those things. As well, we’ll be talking about attendance at federal/provincial/territorial conferences.
I think that wherever possible, it would be helpful to bring, perhaps, chairs of committees along, if time is available and we can do it. Those are the type of things we’ll be discussing.
Those are all good ideas. Not only does it give Members on this side a chance to participate and support Cabinet Ministers and the Premier in the fulfillment of their roles, but it also gives a valuable insight to Members on this side. Many of these young Members will eventually be on that side. It’s a shadowing that I think benefits everybody.
When we arrive here and we do choose our leadership, seven of 19 go to the Cabinet room and 11 of the 19 go to the Regular Members’ Caucus room. There is not, in my opinion, enough of hearing everybody’s voice. You could be an amazing voice at the Cabinet table and have a lot of things to say and a lot of good, but with Cabinet confidentiality and Cabinet solidarity, the public, and even us, we may not hear enough of that. I believe that something is lost.
Does the Premier agree that there may be an expanded role for our Caucus where we sit as 19 equal Members and talk about initiatives and ideas in a greater way than we do normally on an annual basis or at the beginning of our term?
I believe we should do that. I think the way we started this 17th Assembly where we, all 19 of us, sat with Aboriginal governments I think showed that we can work together on that basis. I think for major issues we should meet as Caucus to discuss. I think in November we’re going to get together for two weeks to set the strategic direction for this government and also to finalize or formalize our vision and goals and objectives for the next four years, and our priorities. I think it’s very important for us to work as a Caucus together.
I knew that was coming and I will only make one more supplementary. As the Premier, will the Premier commit to having input on our Caucus agenda from the Cabinet side now, agree to bring forward to the Caucus, together with the Regular Members, the exploration of opportunities for the Caucus to consider more than what we have typically in the past?
We will be discussing that in our Cabinet retreat and we’re prepared to discuss it at the first opportunity in Caucus.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
