Merci, Monsieur le President. Where's the Kleenex? Just in case. It would probably be easier to do this without an audience today.
It's been an honour and a privilege to serve the residents of Frame Lake and indeed all the people of the Northwest Territories. Frame Lake is an amazingly diverse riding. I have lived in the riding for 30 years, and I love it. I need to acknowledge some people that have supported me and indeed all of us while we have been here for the 19th Assembly, most importantly, all of our families that loaned us to this great institution to make decisions on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories.
Thanks to my wife Suzette and our adult children Amber and Rene. You were often subjected to my debriefings and rants but also served as patient sounding boards. I could not have done this without you.
Thanks to all our fantastic staff that keep this place ticking over for all of us. They always tried to make us look good with varying degrees of success. They are the unsung heroes of democracy, and few will ever know the sacrifices and hard work they do for all of us and the public. I acknowledge that I can be hard on our staff but have always complimented good work and never asked for anything I wasn't prepared to do myself. I would also like to recognize and sincerely thank Craig Yeo and Michael Burchill who faithfully served as my constituency assistants and helped many residents with care and respect.
Thanks to my colleagues in this House. You have had to put up with a lot from me. I am the slowest and pickiest eater, have a healthy skepticism of some traditions, and rarely hold my tongue. That being said, I think you would have to agree that I do my homework and more; I've been honest and respectful, admitted mistakes, and remain open to persuasion and new ideas. Like the Speaker said, I will tell you what I'm going to do. I'll give you notice first. I will tell you want I'm going to do. And then I do it. No surprises.
People do not send us here to agree with each other. Differences are healthy and lead to better decisions even if it is a difficult journey. I know that Cabinet thinks I'm rather sparse and miserly with my accolades for their work, so listen carefully. Although this Assembly was often frustrating, I felt and believe that this time around we actually had a Cabinet that was interested in working with Regular MLAs. So hats off to all my Cabinet friends for trying to work with us on this side. My sincere thanks.
Also thanks to our public service who faithfully carry out our direction no matter how crazy that may be at times. During the 19th Assembly, the COVID pandemic, floods, and then fires had a huge impact on our ability to get work done and to work together. Many important initiatives, legislation, and policy changes were delayed. The pandemic also changed the way we conduct our business. In my view, some changes have been positive while others much less so. Our reliance on video conferencing was helpful but came at the expense of personal relationships and communications.
We've had some difficult personnel matters that we've had to deal with in a very public fashion; however, as painful as that was, we learned from those experiences. Our systems work, and based on lessons learned, we put in place various changes to allow for faster but fair decisions and offramps. I urge all NWT residents to exercise their right to vote carefully and thoughtfully, send respectful, hardworking people from a diversity of backgrounds and interests and experience to ensure that public consensus government continues to work.
I especially want to recognize those Members who do not live in Yellowknife. You've carried a much larger burden. I have the luxury of going home every evening, and even if it's very late, being with my friends and family. But I want to thank you guys for the additional sacrifices you had to make.
I want to commend you, Mr. Speaker, for the promotion and support of the Assembly in all our official languages. Mahsi. I also need to recognize the progress that has been made in using all of our official languages in this Assembly and the dedication of our interpreters to make sure everyone can better understand what is said in this place. Merci, mahsi, Marci, Quana, and Thank you.
The OpenNWT website continues to provide a great record of Legislative Assembly debates. That data shows that in all I spoke 350,000 words in each of the 18th and 19th Assemblies. Can you believe it? I believe the only ones who spoke more words than me were MLA Abernethy and MLA Wawzonek. A search of all remarks shows that the mostused word spoken by me was "thanks."
In this Assembly, my office provided services to 104 constituents needing help with GNWTrelated issues. I brought forward three private members bills over two Assemblies, two which were successful or incorporated into government bills.
We have accomplished a lot together, Mr. Speaker, in this Assembly, and here are a few highlights:
We changed the way that resource management bills are reviewed so that it is a collaborative process with Indigenous governments. The only place in Canada and perhaps the world that does it this way. We have our first product of that process, a new and better Forest Act based on comanagement and sustainability.
We changed the Fiscal Responsibility Policy maybe not as much as I wanted and practices to begin to limit perpetual overbudgeting on capital and increase transparency in our finances.
We improved the Ombud’s authority through a Private Member's Bill. A special thanks to MLA Johnson for that initiative.
We improved Cabinet’s carbon tax with mandatory public reporting and revenue sharing with community governments.
We passed legislation to better implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which will change the legislative and policy agendas for future public governments. More work is needed to ensure everyone is at the table and that Regular MLAs are involved.
We laid the foundation for an expanded and improved postsecondary education system for the NWT to help us build a knowledge economy.
Much work remains, including action on our climate and caribou crises, poverty, systemwide improvements to education, universal child care, improved services for seniors, completion of Indigenous land rights agreements, and getting our housing out of core need.
That’s my advice on priorities for the next Assembly. Focus on one large infrastructure project, the Mackenzie Valley Highway that connects communities, and do it in an incremental fashion to ensure that communities benefit. Treat housing as a large infrastructure project. Connect all of our communities to affordable and reliable internet services. Build community and household energy selfsufficiency. I think that should be your infrastructure goals for the next Assembly.
One of the first issues the next Assembly will have to deal with is a review of the fires and emergency management. Please make sure it is an independent thirdparty comprehensive review with public participation, resources, and access to expertise. A terms of reference should be collaboratively developed among the Council of Leaders, Cabinet, and Regular MLAs.
This is not about finding fault but learning and adapting to a changing world with a climate emergency and collaboration between Indigenous and public governments.
Throughout all of my time here, I applied a laser focus on transparency and accountability on legislation, policies, and processes. Public government has not just a responsibility but a duty to ensure the public has an opportunity to see important documents and decisions and to participate in decisionmaking. This lens can and must be applied systematically across everything this government does. We can and must do a better job of actually implementing the Open Government Policy.
One last challenge, Mr. Speaker, please find ways to better explain in plain language what happens here, how we make laws, how consensus government works, and the difference between the Legislative and Executive branches of government. Make more of the work that happens here public and accessible.
Never say never, but my current plans do not include becoming a candidate in the election for the 20th Assembly. It's time for a break and to spend more time with my family. I'm not going to go anywhere, and I'll probably poke my nose in here just to annoy you once in a while. If you ever want my suggestions or advice, just ask. I can honestly say that I've never worked as hard in my life. I did my best to bring my experience, integrity, and creativity to this job.
Thank you for the opportunity and challenge of serving as the MLA for Frame Lake. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
