Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since we are talking about protocols and kind of laying the protocols and groundwork for protocols going forward for the 17th Assembly, when the Premier just shared about his meeting with the grand chief and a little bit of the content of that and the invitation to go to Fort Providence, it kind of reminded me of a protocol that is very dear to my heart, and that is when people in communities, whether it be the town council, the hamlet council, an NGO, want to entertain or host or bring a Cabinet Minister or the Premier into their community, that they make the MLA the point of contact. There is a no more sinking feeling.
Outside of Yellowknife, you know politicians are everywhere, you see them on every street corner, but when you get out into the regions and into our communities, there is a no more sinking feeling to find out the Minister of Education is doing a tour of the schools this morning and you didn’t know about it. It’s a horrible feeling when you’re a Regular MLA and I think it just shows respect to the local MLA. If you’re meeting with the Sahtu leadership, then Mr. Yakeleya should be part of that meeting and part of that conversation.
I know it’s a small territory. We know everybody and people are going to contact you directly, but out of respect and as a protocol, would you share such a protocol with your Cabinet at the very outset? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s going to be the key element of our communications package. Any of the Ministers that travel to anybody’s riding, the Member or the MLA representing that region or community is made aware of it well in advance and there will be an opportunity. Any time I go to a community I find it only helps if you have the MLA representing help to introduce you to their constituents. I think that’s the way to get things done.
So let’s just give an example: the Chamber of Commerce is having their gala AGM coming up here and they would like to have a guest speaker come from this Cabinet. As a matter of fact, they’d like to have Mr. McLeod as their guest speaker. Mr. Bouchard and I would then hear from that organization and we would extend the invitation to the Premier, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, and would in fact host, officially host. It shows such respect to the Regular Members if they not only are made aware of it but actually host the Premier and the Cabinet Members when they are in our jurisdictions. If we could have that put in place I think that would show a great deal of respect to the elected Members on this side of the House.
I agree with all of those sentiments and we’ll work hard to make sure that happens. I’ll certainly look forward to going to Hay River; it’s one of my favourite places.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, I’d like to welcome a former Member of this House, Mr. Ernie Bernhardt. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
