Debates of March 2, 2006 (day 40)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have titled my Member’s statement today, What do I Tell Them? Sometimes in our duties as MLAs we receive many questions from constituents on the way our government does business. What do I tell them, Mr. Speaker, when the decisions in attitude puzzles even me? What do I tell family when they want to know why their mother and grandmother didn’t return home? Do I tell them she was improperly transported when she came to Yellowknife for a medical appointment? What are we supposed to tell frontline workers and people needing treatment that a consultant says we don’t need treatment centres when everyone in the regions knows we do? Who are we listening to? Is their opinion not important? They can tell us what works and what doesn’t work. What are we supposed to tell our own frontline workers when they ask about the direction that the government is going? Do I tell them not to worry; a consultant from the United States knows what is best for us and will point us in the right direction?

Mr. Speaker, when my grandchild asks me about the decline of the caribou herds, do I tell him or her that our generation couldn’t manage the herds well enough and that you and your generation may be out of luck? Then, he or she will ask me about the resources and all the money that left the territory and we have no money left from the royalties. I will have to be honest and say that we spent too much time disagreeing with each other while the gas flowed south and the money went to Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, when I decided to run as an MLA, I told people that I would be honest with them. If I tell them that everything is okay today, Mr. Speaker, then I have broken that promise. Thank you.

---Applause