Mr. Speaker, I will try to be brief. My colleagues here have spoken again very eloquently to the motion, have covered and canvassed almost every point that they could. I just have a few comments that I would like to add in closing.
Mr. Speaker, it’s been another interesting day at the Legislative Assembly. Mr. Speaker, we have to ask ourselves why did we need to step forward at this point with a theme day and a motion on this particular topic. It’s because we have heard from our constituents. They feel strongly about this Board Reform Initiative and, therefore, we feel strongly about it. The Premier has said that no one here is looking for a fight, but when we see an initiative like this come forward and we feel that it is premised on a foundation of lack of information and principles that could do serious harm to the good work and establishment of the boards across the Northwest Territories, we on this side of the House are ready for a fight. I think we showed that today.
I do appreciate the Premier’s comments that their side of the House can support this motion, but trust me, without the work of the Regular Members on this side, this motion would never have made it to this and who knows how far this would have gone.
Mr. Speaker, the enemies of democracy are apathy and ignorance and I would suggest that by the participation here today of the public, I would say that democracy in the Northwest Territories is alive and well.
---Applause
People are neither apathetic nor ignorant of the issues; they are following what their elected government is doing.
Mr. Speaker, I still have to question why this government would pay such an insult to the leadership at different levels in this Territory. Mr. Speaker, this Assembly, these 19 Members, many of us got here, actually, because of our community participation at different levels of leadership. Many of us sat on town councils, we sat on health boards, we sat on education boards, and that’s how we got here, but we don’t have the market cornered on leadership in the Northwest Territories. That is what is so refreshing about the public input that we received on this, is that other people are also keenly aware of and concerned about the issues that we face as leaders in the Northwest Territories.
As one Member said, it is a shame in a lot of ways that we had to devote this much time and this much energy to something that...I guess we will look for those efficiencies. But when you look at the fact that people are worried about their jobs, people are worried about the cost of living, they have so many other pressing issues on their mind right now it does seem a little hollow that our government would expend such an effort on just trying to restructure governance for a reason that they can’t really convey to us what’s behind it.
Now, I have said this to Mr. Miltenberger before, Mr. Speaker, and I’ll say it again: Mr. Miltenberger has obviously never been involved in sales because if he thought he had such a great idea in board reform he should have brought the idea to it. He should have been able to lay it out and say, hey, Regular Members, I have got a great idea and here are the reasons why it’s great. He should have been able to sell us on it. He can’t even sell us. I don’t know how we’re going to sell the public. I have not heard any of that kind of talk from Mr. Miltenberger and, like I said, obviously he’s never had to try to sell anything.
Mr. Speaker, consensus is alive and well, but, as I said earlier today, it goes far beyond these doors and far beyond this dome that we sit under. We have a type of government here in the North where we will consult and we’ll take our direction from the people. As Mr. Yakeleya said, it’s people first. It’s the people who sent us here we serve. That’s where the direction has to come from. It has to come from the grassroots up, not from the top down. I don’t want to live in a Northwest Territories that is a totalitarian where we have a government that sits on their high and mighty horse and dictates to the people out there in the regions and the communities how things are going to work. I don’t want to be a part of that and I will certainly fight anybody who does.
Mr. Speaker, the theory of this initiative being a lack of communication and some of the most recent initiatives of this government being premised on a lack of communication, I am starting to believe it goes far beyond a lack of communication and I think the Cabinet needs to take a very sober, inward look at some of these initiatives they are putting out there because I am starting to perceive them as an attack on people in our Territory, whether it be the public service, whether it be the seniors for the supplementary health benefit, whether it be the people out there working in our boards and agencies. There’s a trend developing here. It’s starting to go beyond bad communications. We can try to mop up after the fact but, to a large extent, some of the damage is already done. Some of our credibility has already been eroded and it’s very, very hard to get that back.
Mr. Speaker, just on one issue as a personal note and I know we are in Yellowknife today and Yellowknife is the only community that has a Catholic School Board and I just have to share this small experience. I was at church on Sunday morning and we quite often have a sharing time and I shared my deep concern. I mean, I believe that all the teachers in all the schools are doing a very good job, but I shared my deep concern of the possibility that the work of the Catholic School Board would be eroded. When my children were in Yellowknife, I sent them to the Catholic school because that is not my denomination but that is my faith. I come from a background of a Christian faith. Mr. Speaker, if our government would have the audacity to go against what those teachers and what that school in their mission statement is trying to impart to children, which is about values, it’s about faith, it’s about things that are going to hold them through the valleys and the difficult times in life, it’s a choice that people make and it’s an opportunity that’s out there. On Sunday, I said to people, I was so distressed about this that I said I am going to use my Member’s statement and I am going to stand up for two and a half minutes in the Assembly and I am going to pray over our Territory. People said oh my gosh, you don’t have the nerve to do that. I said I was going to do it because I was afraid that I would chicken out by today and I wouldn’t do it.
Mr. Speaker, we have a wonderful Territory here. We have an awesome responsibility. We have good leadership here. We need to find a way we can work together but not put our people through the stress that we have with this Board Reform Initiative. So going forward, yes. The Premier did come to me and I will commit that we will try to, in a reasonable fashion, look for efficiencies, but we cannot do it in a heavy-handed way.
I heard with my own ears, even though he says Mr. Miltenberger is not the author of this initiative, I heard with my own ears numerous times on the radio, we are going from 70 to seven boards. When a leader of this magnitude in our Territory stands up and says stuff like that, of course the people are going to believe and they are going to have the anticipated reaction which we have seen.
So, Mr. Speaker, I do thank everybody for their input on this. It would appear that the Cabinet is not going to vote on this, but I do thank my colleagues for the work they have put into this motion and into this debate today. Again, thank you so much to the people who have participated by bringing their ideas forward to us and I will ask for a recorded vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mrs. Groenewegen, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Jacobson, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Krutko, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Ramsay.
All those opposed to the motion, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.
Mr. Lafferty; Ms. Lee; Mr. Miltenberger; Mr. Roland; Mr. McLeod, Deh Cho; Mr. McLeod, Inuvik Twin Lakes; Mr. McLeod, Yellowknife South.
The results of the vote: 11 for, none opposed, seven abstentions. The motion is carried.
---Carried
---Applause
