Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past Friday the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corp made a capital contribution announcement regarding the Betty House. First off, Mr. Speaker, I want to emphasize clearly that as a Member I’m very pleased to hear about this commitment on behalf of our government, and it’s something that I have spoken in the past about and stressed the need we need to invest into. But sadly, at the same time, I, like many Members in this House, was shocked to hear this announcement. What should have been seen strictly as a good-news story, something we’re doing to promote the cause and help women in transition shelters, now becomes a conversation of where is the process. Where was the involvement of the Members on this particular side of the House? Where was the discussion in committee?
Where’d you get the money?
Where did you get the money, as well? While this is happening, Members are becoming concerned that this is becoming an Epimetheus when it comes to work in this particular Assembly. In short, are we simply an afterthought of this particular government?
Our Premier preaches continually about building good relationships and working relationships; however, it’s starting to look like he’s inviting everyone but this side of the House. While he’s busy out there courting new relationships…
---Interjection
While this Premier is out, busy courting new relationships and he’s filling that wonderful dance card with all his new friends, he’s forgetting about us sitting on this side of the House looking to be involved in this investment.
It’s been my experience, with more than eight years behind me, that when any new contribution or major contribution is a budget investment or certainly infrastructure item of this type, typically the affected Member or Members are involved. What working relationship is this Premier telling his Cabinet Minister to build? Regular Members want to be involved. He’ll say, well, I did inform you. Informing the Members an hour before session started on Friday while we were in Priorities and Planning getting ready for the morning is not communication. Yet again an afterthought.
The fact is the lack of information seems very disrespectful. It seems along the fine lines of are we trumping our privilege in this Assembly. Members want to be involved.
There will be questions later today to the Premier, asking about when you will start informing and working with Regular Members on projects like this. We should be celebrating this contribution, not concerned about the process.
