Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use today’s occasion to talk about the Electoral Boundaries Commission. Like other colleagues of this House, I think it’s very important to make sure we echo our concern and draw out the process for people. We can’t use this as an opportunity missed. We have to use this as an opportunity to grab a hold of. Democracy is so important, the worst thing we could do is ignore it because we’d hate to put it at risk.
The commission is asking for the public’s input. As we often say, silence is assent. That’s why it’s so critical for the commission to get a good, robust point of view from our territory on what’s important to people, the pillars of democracy. They want our public, and certainly our public government, to stand by and represent. It’s a prescription for failure if we don’t participate in some manner, and that means input. That’s why it’s so critical.
This evening the commission actually makes an appearance in Yellowknife at the Range Lake North School between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. If knowledge serves me correct, I believe this is the second last public appearance that they will be presenting themselves in some type of open format.
On February 11th I was there as well as a couple other of my colleagues, and we were there with… I acknowledge that they were there under the sense that there was low participation, I’m going to say it that way. I wish there was more public. There were about half a dozen people. The last time the commission rolled through about eight years ago on advice of how to form ridings in the Northwest Territories, it had bad, if not very low, participation as well.
I want to use this time here today to talk to people about saying that this is your government. This is how we form it. This is the type of relationship we need. We need your input. It’s absolutely important that democracy gets its fair representation. There are many pillars and guidelines that help form the style of government that we have, and the size of the ridings and what makes up the communities, things like language, areas where they represent, historical background, culture, but also size and population are very critical as well.
As I close, I want to leave it with this on the record: We have until March 28th for public submissions. So if you’re unable to get down there and do a public presentation or speak your views, you can always e-mail and send a presentation. The last thing I’ll say is that you can also submit via e-mail through nwtbatteries.ca or, of course, you can e-mail them directly at @email. It’s the public’s report so I look forward to any feedback.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
