Debates of February 6, 2009 (day 6)

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I believe that a review of the Executive Council is necessary and should be a standard practice of our consensus style of government.

Firstly, I’d like to thank the many phone calls and e-mails of concern from Nahendeh residents on the potential upset of government. The concern of the interruption of services, existing negotiations and working relationships is a real one and I acknowledge that. I also thank those that shared equal support for this action as well.

I have been consistent in requesting a review of our Cabinet at the two-year mark. There was enough momentum and concern during this sitting to introduce this review sooner than later.

Previous Assemblies have reviewed Cabinet, but the mechanism was agreed to at the start of their term. Regretfully, we did not entertain or take the time to fully agree on the process to review our Executive Council. The only way that we can have a say is to put forward this motion. The wording is harsh. The implications create uncertainty and unrest amongst our people. Revocation of the Premier and Executive Council. However, for me it is a statement to our government and this House that this consensus style of government must include such a review. I really believe that the messaging of this motion is to ask Cabinet to continue working with us.

I want to speak a little bit about the calls and concerns of the people that are sitting and working together. In my previous career working with Enbridge Pipelines, which had a very tense and local working conditions and conflict of personalities, the managers sat us down and said look, you’re not paid to like each other, you’re paid to work together. I’d like to send that message to this House here today as well. After reflection upon this, our working relationships did improve.

As well, I just want to speak about how Cabinet work is a reflection of me as an MLA and how I do my work. When I’m unable to get answers or get negative answers, I have to report to my constituents and tell them this is the response. It’s me that they’re not happy with, not the Cabinet’s decision.

As well, in terms of the recent Discovery Air loan, I went home with many constituents coming to see me who said, you must have known about this loan. Why didn’t you say something about it? We did have a briefing, but I never really did have a say. But constituents do not know that. All they know is that I’m part of government and I must have had a say. I couldn’t really defend that either. What I can say is it’s instances like that which create this disharmony. When Cabinet has to work with us, they can’t really come to us and say this is for your information and expect us to make a proper explanation of it to our constituents and members of the public that are concerned about the many, many issues that affect them and that we have control over. I think that’s just it. To say that I’m outside the process and I have no control does not carry water.

I think this motion, like I said, harsh as it is, I’m going to support it. For me it’s about review of the Executive Council and, as well, unless they’re beginning to say, look, something’s wrong here, Cabinet, something’s wrong here, government, it must be addressed and this is one way that I choose to address it.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I am not in support of this motion. Originally I seconded this motion and supported it. I withdrew my support for the motion because I felt that some of the Ministers that we voted for only 16 months ago still have the ability to carry this government forward. There’s no guarantee that the approach of taking the entire Cabinet out would put those Ministers back in.

I have lost the confidence in the abilities of some of the Cabinet Members. I lost the confidence that some of Cabinet have the ability at this time to move this government forward where the people in the small communities would benefit. I came into this Legislature and saw a lot of inequity between what is provided to the larger communities of the Northwest Territories and what’s provided to the smaller communities.

If this motion is not carried, Cabinet should look at itself. They should look at themselves and say, wow, we just made it. However, most of the Regular MLAs that represent the majority of the people of the Northwest Territories do not have confidence in us, so don’t hold your heads too high. If this motion is not carried, some of the Cabinet Members better thank their Cabinet colleagues for the fact that some Cabinet Members still have the confidence of some people from this side of the floor.

My non-support of this motion does not mean that Cabinet has 100 percent of my support and 100 percent of the support of the people of Tu Nedhe. There are some dysfunctions in Cabinet and that is very apparent. Cabinet better become functional and start looking and making sure that the people in the small communities are given and afforded the same things that are afforded to the larger communities. My issue has always been that; that we come here to represent people here as equals and we represent everybody in the Northwest Territories as equal. That’s not the way things go.

Under any other circumstance this should be a wakeup call for Cabinet. If this motion was not such a broad-brush motion, if it was more focused, I would be here supporting the motion. Cabinet should not feel satisfied that some people from this side are not in support of this motion. Cabinet should look at themselves and say there’s something wrong when the majority of the House on this side hangs up and does not support what they’re doing.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the toughest positions as an MLA that I’ve found myself in. We’ve got a lot of issues at play here and it seems that both sides have come to an impasse, which brings us to the motion that is before us today.

I think there was a way out. There was a way that maybe it didn’t have to go this way. Maybe we didn’t have to end up on the floor of the House moving a motion to remove the entire Executive and the Premier. I think that is excessive. For the folks out there it is a drastic, drastic measure. But you know what? Tough times call for tough measures.

When we’re not receiving any information, when Cabinet is making decisions such as the recent loan off the Opportunities Fund, people are asking us questions on the street. People on the street do not differentiate between a Regular Member and a Cabinet Minister. They think -- and my colleague Mr. Menicoche alluded to this -- that we’re privy to the same information that Cabinet is. That’s not always the case. I know Cabinet cannot share every bit of detail and information with Regular Members, but on something as substantive as a $34 million loan, a risky loan, out of the Opportunities Fund, I believe it’s incumbent upon the leadership of this Territory to share that information with Members.

Now, the policy and the process that allowed that to happen is something else that is very, very suspect.

Again, I don’t understand how two Ministers could show up to a meeting on two consecutive different times over two days and not have one piece of paper, not one single solitary piece of evidence that the $34 million we are putting into that loan out of the Opportunities Fund and putting the public purse at risk was a good thing to do. They came twice, they had no information and that speaks volumes about the way Cabinet takes Regular Members for granted, Mr. Speaker. I personally was offended by that and it’s something that shouldn’t happen. You know, what we need to do, folks, is we need to try to find a way to work together.

I don’t know if Members here have talked about the issue with Premier Roland and the situation he was in before Christmas. My assertion early on, and I told Premier Roland this and I respect Premier Roland, I respect the work that’s done on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories, but he got himself into a situation that was certainly a conflict of interest. My belief was that he should have resigned and we should have moved on. Nobody in this Territory wants to see us in this House fighting with each other and personally I am getting very, very tired of fighting with Cabinet, you know? I am not going to apologize. I am not going to stand here and apologize for doing my job. That’s what I am here to do. My constituents send me here, they voted for me and they sent me to this House to do my job. I ask questions and to be honest with you, Mr. Speaker, the level of detail on the questions coming out of the government in the 16 months that we’ve been here in the 16th Legislative Assembly has been poor. Let’s be honest with one another. Oftentimes questions aren’t even answered and I am not sure why that is the case, but it is the case, Mr. Speaker.

Some of this going back and forth in the media, there’s been a lot of discussion in the media. I have been quoted in the media saying maybe the entire Executive Council should come out. I do support the motion, but I do have a tremendous amount of confidence in the skills and the abilities of many of my colleagues over there. We are colleagues, Mr. Speaker, and I respect everybody over there. However, some of them have put themselves in a position where they’ve lost the confidence of the House and a mid-term review would be coming up in October anyway. This is another way to get to that mid-term review. We aren’t quite there yet, but given the gravity of what’s been going on…

You know, I talked about the loan to Discovery Air; the supplemental health benefits. You know, why the government would go out and cause the angst and the anger out in the community across the Northwest Territories with a shoddy piece of work. Somebody at the Department of Health and Social Services is responsible for that leaving this building, going out across the land in the state that it went out to scare the life out of everybody. People are so scared that they are going to pack up and leave the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. That’s not what this government...The government on one hand says we want to keep people here, we want to trap people here, but then on the other hand they’re slapping seniors in the face and people with chronic medical conditions and they’re not thinking before they do things.

Mr. Speaker, the biggest problem for me, and I‘ve said this in this House before, I am a decision maker. I like to make decisions for a living. That’s why I studied political science. That’s why I got involved in politics. That’s why I like to represent people, my constituents. In order to make a sound decision, you need to have some analysis. You need to have some background information. What I’ve seen far too often from this government is you make your decisions without doing the proper analysis. It goes to board reform, the supplemental health benefit changes. The list goes on and on. We go back to when we were first elected, Mr. Speaker, and we got together as a group of 19 Members. It was shortly thereafter what we talked about, some fundamental issues that were important to Members on this side and Cabinet Ministers. We talked about those things, we put them up on the wall at the Baker Centre. We went away and it wasn’t a month later that the new Cabinet, newly sworn-in Cabinet, seemed to switch directions on us 180 degrees, $135 million in reductions, all these Strategic Initiatives Committees. We had never talked about any of that. What Regular Members wanted or what Members wanted after that election was the government to go out and do the work that was necessary to find out exactly where we were spending the money and which programs and services were working and which weren’t. I know you have a program review office up and running now. I’m looking forward to some of the work that’s going to come out of that, but that’s the kind of thing that as a decision maker, you need to have the information at hand to make decisions. I am not sure what Cabinet is basing their decisions on.

You know, I don’t know if you can lay the entire blame at the feet of Cabinet on this. I think the bureaucracy itself needs to be shaken up, Mr. Speaker, if you will. You know, some of the work these guys are getting is coming from the bureaucracy that I believe is giving these guys not all the information, not the correct information. You know, we need to take our senior management here in the Northwest Territories to task and that’s the job of the Cabinet and I haven’t seen enough of that, Mr. Speaker. I think that’s another thing we have to get at.

Now in terms of communication, that’s a two-way street and I think Regular Members too, we are part of this as well. The communication goes back and forth. The communication from the Cabinet to the public has been poor. Communication between the Premier’s office hasn’t been what it could be. Now is that an issue of personalities or is it an issue of something else? You know, we have to address those things. If it’s egos, if it’s personalities, we need to sit down…It’s too bad we couldn’t have locked ourselves in a room somewhere and sorted this out. Surely we could have worked something out. I don’t understand why it has to come to a motion on the floor of the House to remove the entire Executive Council and the Premier. It just didn’t need to happen this way, folks. I am personally getting tired of the back and forth. It’s like a soap opera. It doesn’t need to be that way.

Personally, Mr. Speaker, I don’t want to be seen as a guy who tears things apart. I don’ t want to be that guy. I want to be seen as a guy, a person, who can help build things and can help make things better for residents of the Northwest Territories. There are a lot of people out there across the Northwest Territories today who are questioning what we are doing here today. And they have every right to question what we are doing here today, but believe me this wasn’t arrived at just yesterday. This has been working itself up, working itself up. There are a number of issues that brought us here and, Mr. Speaker, I really wish there was another way. Like I said, the Ministers that have my full support and my confidence, you know who you are. Those who don’t, that’s the way it is, Mr. Speaker.

The other thing that has been bothering me lately is the fact that some Cabinet Ministers are saying this motion is based on sheer political ambition and motivation. You’re wrong. It’s not built on that. It’s built on the fact that we want to get a government here for the people by the people and when you’re not listening to us, you’re not listening to the people of the Northwest Territories, folks. That’s why I am here and, you know, it’s not out of political ambition; although I shouldn’t be ashamed if I have some political ambition, and I do. I don’t mind saying that, Mr. Speaker. Like I said, I am not ashamed of it. I don’t think that should be held over my head for standing up for what I know is right and speaking my mind. I will continue to do that. I will not be intimidated by anybody or be bullied by anybody. My parents taught me to stand up to bullies and that’s what I do, Mr. Speaker. That’s why I support this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this Chamber today to inform the Assembly and my constituents that I cannot support this motion that is one that in a sweeping way fires the current Premier and entire Cabinet indiscriminately. No one can deny that we in the NWT face unparalleled recession, economic downturn that is deepening, and it’s even finding threats here in the North where once we believed that we had an economic boom led by diamonds, the pipeline and even hydro.

Let’s not mince words here. This is a time of uncertainty for many people whose jobs could be affected by this economic climate. This is a time of despair for those who have been laid off or for those who have businesses that are floundering or even potentially failing any day now. This is a time of worry for all of us with investments and pension plans, which we assumed would carry us through the golden years. These are the times we are living in.

At this crucial time Northerners are looking to this Assembly for stability, leadership and principled decisions. This House is built on the ability to define consensus within itself. In the best traditions of this Assembly, this should be a time where we put ambition and politics aside, where we come together and provide sound leadership and courageous decision.

We are at one of those points I’d like to call political interception, where hard decisions have to be made. The people of the North should be able to look inside these walls and find that every single Member is working as creatively and passionately as possible to meet those enormous challenges that are hitting us day after day.

Yet, what do the people of the North find when they look inside this Assembly’s walls? They see a set of people who have been distracted; some by opportunism, some by anger, some cloaking it under patriotism. Everyone has their own motives. Many are right; many are wrong.

I also see the people looking into this Assembly and seeing it paralyzed by power brokering and anger. They see in the leaders that they have elected an inability to set aside their differences for the greater good of our people of the North. That goes on both sides of this House.

Instead of inspiring policy and unity, they see divisiveness and disarray. This is not what the people of this Territory expect from them. This is not why I ran.

Extraordinary times call for unprecedented leadership. That leadership rests not just on the Premier, that rests on every single one of us. So we must find the greatness within all of us, the ability to cast aside our differences. Our personal favourites and principles must find a way to find progress. We must find a way.

We need to ask and set aside dislike. We need to find forgiveness, because nothing less should be expected from us in these difficult times. For this is a time of collaboration and not compensation. If Regular Members have issues with particular Members of Cabinet, then let’s have that discussion to the people and have our courage and conviction, and say name them by name and we’ll deal with them one by one. At the same time, the accused will have their say. Isn’t that the way to move forward? Isn’t that the way to deal with this problem?

To sweep out the entire Premier and Cabinet in a single sweep is not a responsible answer, in my view. Removing seven to get to one or two is not a level-headed approach, from my view. I’ve had many e-mails speaking to that as well. In fairness, I’ve had a few e-mails that think this motion is the right approach.

Let’s assume that this motion passes. Will it all be fine tomorrow? I’m not so sure. There’s no plan of leadership, so I think that creates a destination of failure.

If this motion passes, for me it will mark truly one of the saddest days; a day in which, when called upon to run parallel leadership and collaboration in the name of the people of the Northwest Territories, this Assembly chose to paralyze its frustration in the hour when people need us most.

In opposing this motion I will not let difficult decisions and discussions which I’ve had with a number of Ministers cloud what is important here today. I know when I’ve spoken to many of the Cabinet Ministers they have listened and respected the views I’ve taken on positions. Sometimes they’ve agreed; sometimes they haven’t. They haven’t chosen to budge on the issues I’ve raised, but there was still mutual respect. And make no mistake, I’ve been disappointed, but the fight goes on. The fight goes on on behalf of my constituents.

There are no faults and contempt out there that have made this Cabinet so rotten we must humble every single one of them by throwing them out in a single stroke of a single vote. I did not become a Member of this Assembly to watch the liquidation of common sense and sound judgment, because we can do better than this. We can do better in what we are doing now. So I will not let the actions of some say this is the only way, because I am telling you this is not the only way.

What is right for the people of the North is to say we can work this out. Because we can do better. The people deserve and are entitled to an Assembly that, when faced with crisis, is willing to put aside differences for common good. This Assembly must call upon its inner strength to end its differences among itself. It is not for itself to the people of the North. I know no singular better reason than to work for that end.

Many have gotten e-mails saying this is the only way to end board reform. Many e-mails have come forward saying this is the only way to end the supplementary benefits changes. I say there are other ways. I say we will have votes on those. I say we will be in positions to hold budgets hostage and put our opinions clearly on the floor. I will say that this Assembly has still much work to be done on both sides of this House.

In closing, I’m going to say that I believe we can do better. This motion calls upon a significant change in the way we do business and I cannot let personal conflict or frustration lead the day, because deep down inside I know we can do better together.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last couple days I’ve had some pretty early mornings thinking about how the motion is going to be discussed, and how it’s going to be talked about amongst the 18 MLAs in the House here, and what the interpretations might be in the public in terms of what we are looking at and what we are doing. What are the different analyses of the meetings? What are the interpretations of the meetings? How will this play out in our communities? How will this play out amongst ourselves? Looking to this day as to how it will roll out.

The motion, as I read it, is a strong signal to this leadership, specifically to the Executive Council, about the sentiments, the thoughts and feelings from the MLAs who are considered the Regular MLAs. This motion wasn’t something that came overnight. The other Members have talked about and I had thought about this and had a discussion with Mr. Roland yesterday as to is this salvageable. Is this something we can fix? I was thinking, where in our life did we get to a point that this motion has to be on the floor. Something we could have done. I had some e-mails saying don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. So I was thinking that day where in our system that it got to this point.

This motion is speaking to that point. I don’t know if it’s pride. I don’t know if it’s blaming. I’m not too sure if it’s the recent briefing that we got on Discovery Air or the additional information we got from the Ministers on this Opportunities Fund that says okay, that’s it, or maybe other factors.

It’s about leadership that Members talk about; the strong signal to leadership. It’s all of us. We operate in a very unique system; a system that Members on this side are the majority and the Executive Council is the minority. This is what this motion maybe is signalling to the people of the Northwest Territories, that consensus government is strong and alive, that the people in the Northwest Territories need to know that we need to work together. They have told us: work together. Our elders have told us: work together.

Twenty years ago the Sahtu Tribal Council in Deline, Fort Franklin at that time, us young leaders, we were fighting amongst ourselves. Maybe this is déjà vu, but elders stopped us in that meeting and the elders scorned us as young leaders rising up and helping the people in the Sahtu region. They actually put us in our place. We went back to work again. Hard feelings were set amongst ourselves in the Sahtu region. Thank God for the elders that told us what we needed to hear even though we didn’t want to hear it. That’s part of our culture. That’s what we bring into this Assembly here. We bring those values, those upbringings into the Assembly.

My comments to this motion from a small community is that there needs to be, as the Minister indicated in his territorial budget, a storm. There’s got to be a shaking in terms of how we respond to the people in our communities. It’s got to be a real hard shake in terms of this is what we’re going to do for our people in our communities, because we still lack the basic infrastructure of health care. Our people are still being diagnosed months, years after they have seen the hospital with cancer, leukemia, other sicknesses, something basically is wrong. We’re just not getting the work done. Cabinet has indicated through many good proposals about what they’re going to do. Fair enough. Not all programs and services can be equal across the Northwest Territories because of numbers and economics, but there’s got to be some basic services to be brought about amongst our discussions to say yes, when we go into one of the communities, you can have this service here, not every six weeks, not every three months, but you can have this basic service.

Elders in our communities have talked about things that they want. Dust control is one. Why are elders going to Wal-Mart and buying filters in the summertime, putting them in the house and changing them because of the amount of dust? That program was evolved through other means to funding the communities, but we know the communities, they need more than more basic services and they compete against each other. So we allow them to fight amongst themselves to say what do you want.

I think there are some basic services that this government really needs to be serious about. Our education system for example. Elders have talked about how we should improve our education system for our people, but we somehow have to follow the Alberta curriculum. When I was sitting down with an elder the other day, in talking about some of these things, one of the things I researched as to why is it that we have some of our ceremonies passed on by our elders. Couldn’t get it. Mr. Speaker, the reason why we have some of our ceremonies is because it reminds us where we come from, how we grew up in our communities, what makes us unique as a human being, either Dene or a Metis or even a...(inaudible)...that makes us unique. I do know that as an aboriginal person these ceremonies should be taught as mandatory in our schools. I brought up the issue of picking berries. Students picking berries is a very special ceremony. But, no, we compete with this academic curriculum because we have to prepare our children for the future, but we’re not really balancing it properly. I haven’t yet seen from this side that these are core programs that should be in the education system, spring time, fall time, winter and summer. There are certain things that really need to be important. Elders have told me this.

Mr. Speaker, the honourable Member from Nahendeh is correct because we also get questioned on things that we aren’t privy to. Again, on one hand, we have to defend or are put in the position of defending some things that we’re not privy to. We’re not here every day and not in our system, to understand the system, how we work the system. There are very good people across here that work for us. Strong message that we need to work really hard for us, especially in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to Cabinet, people in my region, we are taught many times as to where this government is going to go. We have heard or read mostly about one of my constituents in Norman Wells. I think unofficially she’s the Minister of Transportation of highways. She is so adamant and insistent about talking about something she believes in. Mr. Speaker, there are different opinions as to her comments in the paper. Mr. Speaker, she is an elder in my region. She is someone that has the belief and the vision that something could get done in the Northwest Territories such as extending the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I guess from our side, I guess from myself, I’d like to fight for something that’s worthwhile fighting for such as the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I was very disappointed, Mr. Speaker, hearing the federal government not making any mention of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. I know this Cabinet has made efforts to get the Prime Minister to see something that could be done, but I think we need strong leadership, regroup as a leadership to push the issues like this. The federal government stands to gain millions and millions from the Northwest Territories and there are opportunities to build the Mackenzie Valley Highway.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I think that’s what the message is for Cabinet, as I read this motion. Some basic core services in our communities. I’ve named off a few that could be done, that needs to get done. Other communities that take programs and services for granted, we are desperately fighting in our communities to get. Something’s wrong so something’s got to move. I think it’s a good signal and change is good. I think that opportunities always present themselves. Mr. Speaker, in closing I want to say that I will be supporting the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Today it’s probably one of the toughest positions I’ve been put to task for in my elected career, as MLA for Nunakput and in my political career as a whole. For Nunakput I’ve been very fortunate to have my colleagues on both sides of the House support me on anything I’ve done. In regard to giving me the access road to Tuk and anything that I’ve asked for basically. My leaders back home, they phone me and tell me, support the government, support them to keep them in to try to work together as 19 as a whole. It’s a really tough call for me because you know some of the stuff I’ve seen, people don’t see what goes on here behind the closed doors of the Legislative Assembly. With all that’s been going on since the summer, I mean I sit as vice-chair of EDI, you know what happened with our worker there. That’s bad. That is bad for all of us in regards to having an affair. I mean, as a family man, it was a real sickening feeling I had in regard to the family. To me, in my growing up, it was family first. That, like I said, brings me to a real sick feeling. I can’t judge my Premier in regard to that; he’ll be judged by the good Lord.

I came to Yellowknife and to the Legislative Assembly as MLA for Nunakput to make a difference for my people. I think I’ve been working together with my colleagues as a whole to do that. The bottomline is we have to quit pointing fingers either through our side, not so much our side, it’s a two-way street, and we use the media to get our points across. Some days you think you’re in All My Children or in some soap opera. Like I said, it’s a really awkward position I’m put in. I really think notice has been given in regard to this being brought up to my colleagues across the floor. You guys better start doing your job, start serving your people. You’re not. Half of you are doing an awesome job. The thing is we’ve got to start working together to get it done.

Health benefits, Sandy, throw it out. It ain’t going to happen. You know? The other things, the little things, you forget about the people in the communities. The high cost of living. I could go on and on. People are starving up north. No fuel. Are you going to buy fuel for your kids or are you going to buy food? What are we going to do? It’s up to you seven Members across the floor to serve the people of the Northwest Territories and not serve yourself.

The whole thing that this came about, it wasn’t shot from the hip. Things kept building up in regard to where it’s at today. For me, I’m put in a tough situation in regard to my leadership back home and my supporters. They tell me, support the government. We are in tough economic times right through and they’re saying if we did this it’s going to crumble. I don’t think it will if it went either way. I think there are Members here who could do a job on either side of the House who are more than capable. I’m just put in that situation in regard to...

I listened to a lot of people. I even had phone calls from people who I never heard from in 10 years and they’re phoning me at my apartment. Two o’clock this morning I got a phone call. For the past two days I’m not sleeping. I’m worried about this day. Now it’s here. Today I’m really reluctant to go with or go against, but for me Blackberry wireless has been giving me e-mails steady from my constituents telling me to support them.

I’m giving you guys one more chance in regard to what’s going on. To my colleagues on this side of the House, I apologize. One more chance. Next time it comes up and one of you are not doing your job, I’m going to make sure I follow through. Also, I really get tired of reading the newspaper everyday in regard to my colleagues Ramsay and Groenewegen. People taking shots at them. All they want is the best for the people of the Northwest Territories and sometimes it gets taken out of context. Bottomline: let’s start working together, let’s grow up. We’ve got to serve our people. People are starving. I’m putting you on notice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, this is not an easy time. I’ve been on both sides of the floor during times like this and it’s not easy. A couple Members, I respect the brutal honesty and their stand on the position. We are all here to...There’s reason for each person to do what they do and they feel whatever they have to, to do best.

I was walking here this morning and I was wondering where I was going to start. I was going to start from the time I got in here, my expectations of being an MLA to what I saw after I came in here which didn’t impress me at all and Jackie’s made reference. The politics within the politics is what got to me and I could not believe that. I didn’t want to believe that, but unfortunately it’s true. I’ve seen it during the 15th; I’ve seen it during the 16th.

We profess ourselves to be leaders across these Territories. There are times when we act like leaders when it’s for our convenience, and there are times when we don’t act like leaders and people expect more of us. I hear people talk about my Northwest Territories and my Northwest Territories goes from Sachs Harbour to Fort Smith, from Fort Resolution to Aklavik. It includes all the Northwest Territories. I hear from people. We can’t fool people out there. We can’t. I really wonder sometimes where we are going. Where are we going? Are we doing what’s best for this institution or are we doing what’s best for the Northwest Territories as a whole? I really thought about this morning as I was walking here and I was also thinking I picked the wrong time to try and quit smoking, because I could sure use one right about now.

---Laughter

I agree with some of the comments over there. I hear some of the comments over there and I appreciate the brutal honesty of some Members. Like I said, everybody has a reason for doing what they do. It’s not an easy position to be in, whether you’re on that side, where I’ve been twice already. I’ve been here for four and a half years, I think this is the third, maybe the fourth time I’m going through this and people across the Northwest Territories are saying well, that’s fine, hold people accountable. You’re putting too much energy into it and that energy could be best used somewhere else. The communication issue, it happens on both sides. It happens on both sides. I sat with the Regular Members for the first 12 months of the 16th and here for the last going on four, I think four months to the day, and I see that it works both ways. That’s something that has to be cleaned up. Throughout this whole exercise, and I’m really glad we’ve had this debate in public on the floor of the Chamber because the people out there can see. Throughout this whole exercise, I think it’s become evidently clear that we have to fix the line of communications and, in my opinion, so many times the ability to move forward is hindered by dragging stuff from back here. We can’t move forward if we are constantly dragging weights. That’s the God awful truth.

We all talked about moving forward for what’s best in the Northwest Territories. If I have done anything wrong, I would face the Members and I would stand here on my merit and be judged as to whether I had done my duty or not. I would accept the consequences. Look me in the eye and say I have no confidence in you, don’t pull the trigger. I can respect that and I can live with that. But to be put at the side of the ditch and machine gunned into the ditch is not something I truly respect.

I have heard talk of a ship out in sea. You know, you get an imbalance of people paddling on one side, ore on one side. We are going to veer off and I think it’s happened too many times in this case. Perception, we can stand up here and I can be up here saying all about the Northwest Territories, people don’t always hear what you say. They see what you do. Perception is nine-tenths of the law and what you say or what you do actually speaks a lot louder than what you actually say.

Mr. Ramsay mentioned fighting with Cabinet and that’s a true statement. I mean we all have our differences in here and we aren’t always going to see eye to eye. We sit…Cabinet, Cabinet doesn’t always see eye to eye. We don’t always see eye to eye with each other. But at the end of the day we have to put all that aside and we have to not just talk about doing what’s best with the people of the Northwest Territories, we actually have to do it.

Mr. Abernethy pointed out this is a great place. This is a great place to live. It truly is from the time you’re born until you’re planted, we live a very good existence here. Our schooling is taken care of. You see our kids in school, they don’t have to find part-time jobs because their SFA will look after them. We have a good system here. It’s not perfect. I’ll be the first one to say that. There are glitches as the Members like to point out, but for every glitch there are probably 10 or 12 good things that are happening and people across the Northwest Territories are being looked after, sometimes not as well as they would like, but they are looked after and I believe looked after very well. In my opinion this Territory in this country is the best place to be living.

You are concerned with leadership issues. Leadership, in my opinion, is 19 Members of this Assembly. We have to set aside any issues, any differences, we have to set all those aside and we have to start moving forward, we have to work together and I’ve always been confident in people’s ability. I’ve always been confident that at the end of the day a good common sense decision may be made based on what we keep talking about is best for the people of the Northwest Territories and to blow up the government right now, is it the best use of our time? Do we not have work we have to do? If a message was being sent, the message is heard, I guarantee. I listened to each one of you as you spoke over there. I have heard what you were saying and I am sure we’ve all heard what you were saying. That’s a good start and something we have to work on and that’s something that we have to nurture and just to make sure that is something we continue to do all the time. It goes both ways. Like I said, I sat there for twelve months, four months on this side, it works both ways, it works both ways. I think that’s something we are going to have to sit down, I think as Jackie said, we have to sit down and get things ironed out. Why can’t we, as Rodney King said, why can’t we all just get along? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this certainly isn’t an easy process that we’re going through. Certainly there are two parts to my statement and I will certainly be speaking my language and also at the same time, I will be speaking English right after.

[English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say a few words that I have spoken in my language. Of course, my statement will be short and right to the point. Mr. Speaker, I will be selective and choose my words wisely as this is an important era in the territorial government, in this 16th Assembly. Ever since I got elected in this 16th Assembly, this whole Assembly has been going around in circles. It’s like a circus.

My Speaker, I am speaking from my heart. We’re not getting anywhere. We’re trying to get ahead, but we’re here today again to talk about certain issues that we must overcome. Government is a serious business. We simply cannot be changing leadership every time we may be pissed off about one or two Ministers or whatever the case is. Mr. Speaker, this particular incident or issue, the whole ordeal, has a huge impact on the Northwest Territories, our communities and our people that we serve. Is this really what the people of the North want? We don’t know. We should find out if that’s the case.

Regardless of the vote today that we are faced with, we are in a time of fiscal restraint and economic uncertainty. This government has the responsibility to be fiscally responsible and look to a new innovative way of ensuring essential services remain available in the Northwest Territories for the residents. Changing the Executive Council does not change that fact. It only prevents the government from doing the work it needs to do in a timely fashion.

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to reflect for the record, those people who are listening on the radio, those people who are watching us, I think it’s key that we are talking about this particular motion. This motion we are debating here is a non-confidence vote on the Premier and the whole Executive Council, meaning that everyone here, Members, Regular Members, are telling us they lost confidence in us, they lost confidence in me as an Executive Council Member. You need to tell me sitting here as a Council Member, Executive Council, what we’ve done wrong, what we’ve done so wrong that you do not want our leadership. You need to face me also, eye to eye, and tell me to my face what I’ve done wrong. Have I broken the law? Have I broken a rule, policy, regulation within our government?

In my role as Minister, I have always been transparent and accountable to each and every single one of you as Regular Members and also my colleagues, also my constituents of Monfwi riding and I will continue to do so, Mr. Speaker.

So far to date, Mr. Speaker, there has been only one Member that came to my office and explained why this motion was brought forward. Mr. Speaker, this is truly a serious allegation to the North and our communities and people are watching carefully on how each and every one of us will be voting on this particular motion. This motion of non-confidence in our government, the Government of the Northwest Territories, a motion of non-confidence and me as a Member of the 16th Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of new ideas, a lot of new initiatives that we need to start implementing. We just heard about the budget. That is going to benefit the whole Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, this particular motion to me is a selfish one. You need to think about the North, the people that we serve, the Northwest Territories. If this issue here is a perception of a lack of communication between the Executive and Members that we’ve heard over and over, we simply need to improve our communication dialogue, not dissolve the Executive Council as a whole. Every organization, government, has the ongoing challenges that we are faced with today. It’s not only us, but nationally, internationally.

Mr. Speaker, in this Assembly, we talk about working together, cooperating as a consensus government, which I simply do not see here today but we can certainly fix that. The onus is on every one of us sitting here; 18, 19 of us. It goes both ways, as Mr. Ramsay indicated. We should be sitting down discussing issues, discussing challenges, and finding opportunities, finding solutions to resolve all those issues we are faced with. We can certainly do that together, all of us together. Let’s not wait for others to come to our rescue. We simply cannot afford to continue operating in this fashion constantly changing leadership status.

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, anything is possible if we all work together, put our personal differences aside. We are here to serve the people of the Northwest Territories. They depend on us to make the most important decisions for them. All of us as elected Legislative Assembly Members need to strengthen our working relationships and everyone needs to do their part. Mr. Speaker, can we make this government work? Mr. Speaker, yes, we can. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure all the people in the gallery and all the Members in this House and all people listening on the radio and watching on television can feel the tension in the air. It’s so thick you could cut it with a knife right now and it has been for some time. Mr. Speaker, it really is a tough situation we are in. It’s tough for all of us. We heard from many Members here speak with great emotion and voice some real concern.

Of course, Mr. Speaker, I have to mention it’s really a strange situation we are in also, because usually a government’s confidence is voted on after they present the budget, not before.

Over the last few days, I have been really trying to take stock of where we are at and how we ended up here. I certainly, if there is an issue with Cabinet, I take my share of the blame if there is concern about our conduct. I really would have liked the opportunity to see how we can resolve it.

Mr. Speaker, I considered resigning if Members are considering that I am not doing my job. I will continue to offer that. I think that should come in the form of a review. I was somewhat surprised to see this motion come forward and I tried to talk to a number of Members over this issue. Why don’t we have a mid-term review? That’s not something that’s being contemplated at this point. They thought it was too late. Some Members said it was complete lack of confidence in our government. Some Members even went as far as to say I didn’t get what I wanted from this government for my riding, so you guys got to go.

Mr. Speaker, I have also heard from the general public. The issue I have been hearing is there‘s a clash of personalities amongst us as 19 Members. There are a number of people who will probably never get along in this forum and that’s something that is very serious.

Mr. Speaker, I say that because I am a strong believer -- and I make no bones about it -- in the consensus government style. Consensus government is something that I have worked with all my life. It is the only style of government that I know and participated in. I have worked with band councils. I have worked with Metis councils. I have worked with regional governments, aboriginal governments and when it works, it works well, but if people don’t respect it, it won’t work. That is the basis of consensus government. It takes trust, it takes respect and it takes an awful lot of communication.

Mr. Speaker, I have also watched the party system. I have studied the party politics style. I’ve never liked what I’ve seen. I’ve seen a lot of people, there’s a lot of yelling, a lot of arguing, and very little communication or sharing of information.

What concerns me is since we got together as Members of the 16th Assembly, we all had high hopes. We had lots of smiling faces in those days. We really tried to work together. That was a really strong theme amongst all of us, was to work together. As soon as Cabinet was selected we started to see lines being drawn. I think before Cabinet even moved one decision we were being accused of doing certain things. That has made it very tough to go about our business. We’re starting to see that escalate now. We’re starting to see our consensus style of government being brought to a virtual standstill. There is starting to be a lot of what I guess could be called threats, a lot of strong words amongst ourselves, and absolutely no chance of us getting together for a group hug or anything of that nature.

---Laughter

I’m trying to make light of it, but the reality is it’s going to be a real challenge for us to continue to work together. It’s at a time when our economy is really in a downturn situation. It’s a very difficult time for a lot of our communities. I think a lot of Members have mentioned that. It’s a lot of tough slugging for our residents and businesses. We should be looking for solutions and to make tough decisions.

As I looked at what could be the possible outcome of this whole exercise I’m really struggling to find any win in any form, no matter what the outcome. If we remove all Members on this side of the House and put them on the other side of the House and change seats per se, we still are not going to be functional. We’ll have the same debates. We’ll have the same stalemates. We’ll have to wait for the new budget to be drafted. I don’t believe if the Cabinet goes down, the budget is going to stay. We’d need an interim budget. If the government is recognized for its budget -- and that’s their signature series of what we’re doing, the decisions accumulated -- then that’s going to be really tough. It will take a transition period.

Even if we change some Members of Cabinet, depending on who gets into Cabinet we still may have the conflict that we have amongst some Members. Whether it’s on the Cabinet side or some Members go on the Regular Members’ side, the dispute is still going to be there. I think our only chance of surviving this government is to keep the current government in place, continue to try to work together to try to look at what are the serious allegations and challenges and issues that have been raised by the Members and try to work them out. Almost every Member has raised an issue over process, about how we’re not doing well enough in communicating, how we’re not doing well enough for giving advance notice, how we’re not doing well enough to responding on different issues. I think those are issues that can be overcome. But we need the opportunity.

The only other solution would be for all of us to resign, all 19 Members, and start again. Because there’d be no easy way to get through this and we’ll just be at a stalemate after stalemate for the rest of our term.

I think we are to take the time to review what our challenges are and deal with them. We should take the time to work on a better communication system. We should also improve our decision making process. We should all commit to work together, put aside our differences, to help the people in our communities, help our workers, our businesses, then not be spending time on issues that many people are viewing as a clash of personalities.

We need for the NWT to see us emerge from this as stronger; stronger from going through this financial crisis, going through this political crisis. We have to focus on our future, not our differences. I would personally believe that it’s a waste of time for us to go through the TLC process again. New Ministers would have to take the time to become familiar with the departments, their new portfolios, and set a new agenda. We’d probably see a lot of commitments we made to the communities, those things may have to be postponed. Programs and services that we’re working on may be delayed. And for sure the credibility with the public or other jurisdictions would certainly be compromised, if it’s not already.

I think all of us have heard from the leaders in our communities, from our constituents, from the NWT Association of Communities, from the Chamber of Commerce, from aboriginal governments, from aboriginal leaders, and they’re all basically saying the same thing. The message is pretty clear: Set aside your personal conflicts, work on issues, get on with the work that’s needed for the people of the Northwest Territories. Give the people of the Northwest Territories the comfort of having a stable working government that’s going to be there during the difficult times. I’m serious. If we can’t do that, then we may need to look at the only alternative we have, which is to go back to the polls and let the people decide.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

I’d like to thank the Members for the comments to this motion. I see there are lots of people in the gallery and I’m sure there are people around the Territory and perhaps some parts of Canada who are watching, to see how we’re going to emerge from this motion.

I’ve been here for 10 years. I was elected in 1999 and this is my third Assembly. In that time I have seen a lot of things. So what is happening today is new in some ways and not in others. I see that there are lots of people who watch us who are more familiar with how the consensus system works and how conflicts arise and how some of them are resolved.

But I have to say that in the five situations where Ministers were removed, two of them had to do with conflict resolution and three of them had to do with some matters involving court. What is new here is that we’ve never had a motion to remove the entire Cabinet. Obviously this is a very serious motion and I have listened very carefully to what the Members are saying, because obviously there’s a reason for bringing that forward.

What I’m hearing is lack of communication or breakdown in communication and process, and some of the Members have said it’s an unhappy situation to have to tell their constituents negative news. But that is new to me. If we are judged by negative news that we need to give, I would suggest to anybody else who wants to run for Minister of Health and Social Services that they may not want to consider that portfolio. It is a really high burden to put on any political leader that you cannot give me that news and that that will be the standard to which you will judge.

I just want to say, obviously I understand that this is a very difficult situation for everybody and everybody has given a really well thought out opinion about why they stand on this motion on one side or the other. But I was thinking this morning and over the last few days about how we got to where we are and how we get out of it. This morning, when I was listening to Mr. Miltenberger’s interview and the reaction from the budget, in most jurisdictions the confidence motion is on the budget. That is the most important thing. When you look at us, the general response we’re getting from the motion out of the budget is that Regular Members here who support the motion support the budget.

For any government a budget is the most authoritative and legitimate document on the confidence of the government. So when I look at the budget and see if we have worked together for the last two months, because we have, because under consensus government Members have a preview to the budget document first. If we were able to work out an agreement on a $1.3 billion expenditure and set out priorities and where the capital money will be spent or program money, surely we have more in common and we have some kind of system that works here and allows us to do that. I understand that there are differences, but surely we have to look for what is common ground that we can build on.

I think we’ve all been influenced by President Obama, who’s been elected in the United States, and his favourite saying -- and he is, I think, spreading the word around the world -- that you can spend all your time thinking about what divides anybody. We can spend all our time thinking about what divides us, what makes us upset, what’s not working for me. But we can also spend that time thinking about what works for us, what unites us, what is a common ground.

Another favourite saying that I used to hear from President Clinton is what is wrong in America, not saying what is wrong in America cannot be fixed, but what is right about America. I have to believe that as long as I’m a Member here, the 19 of us are here, we’ve been elected duly by the people who sent us here, and we are here to do good work. There has to be some kind of common ground we can work on.

Mr. McLeod put out a really strong statement about the state of where we are, and I think it is worth reflecting on what we are doing, regroup, work on a communication channel, make it public. But I do believe that at the end of the day if we could agree on a $1.3 billion expenditure, understanding that we will have some debates and arguments on that, then surely we have a lot more in common than others.

With respect to any remarks made here about the work I have done as the Minister of Health and Social Services, I have already stated that I take those comments very seriously. Before I announced the changes to the supplementary health benefits I went around to Members’ offices and a lot of Members said to put it aside here, take it to the side and it will get better. Member Yakeleya told me this. Member Menicoche said that. Member Beaulieu said that. So I think I don’t want to create a feeling that we don’t have a mechanism to communicate with each other. We’re always here. We’re talking to each other. I could, one by one, talk to all 11 Members about some of the things they have asked me to do that we are working on.

I think this is a motion that has a serious message and it’s telling Cabinet and all the Ministers that we need to do better; some of us more than others. Surely if the 19 of us could put our heads together we could work our way through this.

I also want to say that this is not the first time in this Assembly as this Cabinet that we have been questioned with a non-confidence motion. In a way this was the biggie, this was the super motion. There is a gauntlet thrown down. But I’m hoping that once we resolve this, that we respect the decision of the House, that we work together and that Members on that side know that myself as a Minister and the Cabinet are listening. Surely we are adult enough and are leaders enough that we can work out a process to work out the differences and also to pay attention to the fact that there’s a lot more that brings us together than what divides us.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Like my colleagues have mentioned, this is a very serious issue not to be taken lightly and I’ve listened very carefully to what everybody has said on both sides. Like everybody here, I’m very proud and honoured to be an MLA. I’m also proud and honoured to serve my constituents for the past 16 months. I have been proud and honoured to work with my colleagues on both sides of the floor. I’ve been proud to work with GNWT staff both here in headquarters and up and down the valley. Their efforts are crucial to our success and I applaud them all.

The past several months have been challenging for all of us. Since I became Minister, very early on I was reminded that we could be taken out, because we were put in by the Caucus. And I’ve taken that very seriously.

Also, I’ve been singled out as being delinquent in my communications. I want to point out that this is something that I think all of us can improve upon. Depending on the outcome of the motion, I’ll continue to work very seriously to improve in this area.

I thought about it and I said, well, how could we improve on the process? We have a well established process of committees and Cabinet and so on that’s been here for some time. How can we improve on communications? Is it a systemic problem? I don’t think it’s a lack of will to communicate. Perhaps now that everybody has Blackberries we’ll make sure that we send messages to everybody. But I think it’s more a function of getting together, reconfirming how everything should work, and agreeing that we will communicate and work together.

So I will commit to all my colleagues, both Cabinet and Regular Members, that I will continue to work together. Several Members have mentioned that maybe we needed to get to this point so that it will cause us to reflect on how we can work to find ways to work better together and to go forward. People are relying on us to show leadership, so let’s set aside our differences and find ways to move forward.

Improving communications is critical and we should all commit to doing that. I think we all could have done a better job of communicating, including myself. I’ll continue to try to improve in that area. I’ll make a commitment today to make a concerted effort to communicate more and better. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. I know all of us work very hard and all of our families will attest to that.

I’d ask everybody to reflect on the good work that’s been done and to find ways to move forward.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

I’d venture to say that everybody with a computer terminal or a radio or a TV or whatever other means have it tuned into the House. They are watching with great anticipation and bated breath.

We are existing in the worst economic downturn since, they say, the Great Depression. Job numbers today and on the news were 129,000 Canadians lost their jobs in January; 600,000 in the States. Conditions continue to worsen.

Yesterday we tabled a $1.3 billion budget that was a result of months of collective work together; surely a testament to one of the big things that we can do together. But we stand here today in a consensus system airing our differences with a draconian motion that probably has no equal in the life of the Legislative Assembly with the impact it could potentially have on the government, on the people of the Northwest Territories.

The consensus government that we all subscribe to is under stress. I would say it’s showing some fractures. I agree with my colleague Mr. Ramsay from Kam Lake that there has to be a way for us to repair this institution, which we all say we cherish. We have an underused part of our process that I would suggest to you we should consider putting back into much greater use and that is a simple function of the big round room right up here called Caucus, where Mr. Ramsay says we should lock ourselves away and have those kind of frank chats. I heartily agree.

I’ve been here going on 14 years now. The role of Caucus has always been central, right from division and before division, to helping us work our way through extraordinary circumstances in a forum many times with no staff but the 19 Members, or the 24 when we first started, a way to put those things on the table so that we don’t come to this point in our history, whereas it’s been noted we seem to be paralyzed. I think it is incumbent upon all of us -- and I agree with Mr. Beaulieu -- nobody should be happy about how this vote is going to turn out, nobody should look upon this as a victory or a loss. What it is, and I agree once again, that it’s a wake-up call, that as we face these incredible economic challenges, whether what I think and what I have heard most Members say is a good budget and when you look at the flood of e-mails and all the communication and traffic that is going on in terms of people in the North, 10 of us, we elected you to come and fight for us, we did not elect you to come and fight among yourselves. This is the time and the test for us is to get past this moment.

We are only 16 months in and we have already reached the point of this type of motion. It tells us that our system needs to be looked at and I think we have to have that common commitment to do that. If we can’t, then it bodes very, very poorly for us and all the people of the Northwest Territories.

The budget that is before this House has a tremendous amount of good things. I have heard all the concerns in the communities. We have a clean energy piece in there, we have alternate energy, cost of living issues. People are waiting. One of our biggest capital infrastructure budgets, and yet we are in this House, in the legislative bubble, as I call it, debating this issue. Clearly, it needs to be debated because it is here and we cannot avoid it.

As we share some of the angst and stress of being in this Legislature, I would like to just share a bit of the stress of being on this side of the House.

We were barely elected when Minister Bob McLeod was told he was going to be taken out because of the unhappiness of the Members; but months. Our very first budget, the attempt was made -- it was very, very close -- to prevent the budget from even making it into the House. To bring down, in effect, this Cabinet before we even got to present a budget.

Last October, as I made a trip down the hall to the offices of the Premier and the Minister of Health, telling them that they’re going to get taken out because the process was, decisions were being made at one end of the hall and it was also coming down the hall. Now, 16 months in, for the fourth time we have this motion. So we have reached the point where now the whole government goes. A very sweeping and draconian approach. I think if that is not a reflection or indication and a symptom that our consensus government needs our care and attention, then nothing is. I think we have come very close to the precipice, the tipping point, and that we should be agreeing that let’s do as Mr. Ramsay suggested and figure out the way we get together.

There is a long tradition of history for the people of the Northwest Territories about the value of our system of government. In the face of tight economic times, we have come up with what I think and what I have heard is a very good budget. But first we have to fix our process. We have to be able to move forward and we can’t stop the issue of the budget to do that. We have to be able to multi-task in this case.

So I want to commit, as well, that I will shoulder my responsibility and blame for what point, the point that we’re at. I take very, very seriously all the comments. We have struggled for 14 years with the issue of process and communication and it is not yet one that we have come to grips with. In every Assembly it dogs us. So I would hope that we can collectively put our goodwill first to get past the issues that are grating on us all, and rise above that to provide what the people of the Northwest Territories are expecting, which is a functioning consensus government that is going to deliver to them the services that they’ve elected us to provide to them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are at a time that the Northwest Territories needs leadership; leadership that is ready to make tough choices...

---Applause

...and represents all the people, that looks at the big picture.

Mr. Speaker, I know that much of what has been discussed was about my conduct, both personal and professional. I have been told, quite some time ago, that it would happen to me too. I remember sitting in a Minister’s office many years ago when that was said to me. I left there and I thought, what are you talking about, that that would happen to me too? As I questioned him, he responded by saying, to survive in this business, you need to have a thick skin. That has been pointed out to me on a number of occasions, that my conduct is one where I respond and react to what’s been said to me, how it’s been said to me, what’s been stated in the paper about our government and our plans. That, I must say, as I did an interview once over the last budget that I was Finance Minister in past, that there was something said to me that I must have a thick skin, and that my skin was getting a little raw, because I had started taking things a little personally. I had taken the shots. I don’t think anybody can say that they can do it without getting personal to a certain level.

In fact, it was after that budget process that I sat in the chair after the House had finished and I looked out that window and I thought to myself that in my path as a Member of the Legislative Assembly I have challenged other leaders of government and other Premiers, and forcefully. I went after them on issues, on expenditures and even agreed to disagree on our politics. I thought about that, Mr. Speaker, and I thought that the next time I see the Premier of the 14th Assembly, I am going to approach him and apologize, because I have taken such a strong stance at times and how it must have been difficult for him to take it and not take it personally.

So I had that opportunity, actually, up at the Dene Nation Assembly in Fort McPherson and I had a chance to apologize to Premier Kakfwi, Premier of the day. It just goes to show, Mr. Speaker, that at a time when we are in this House and we are before the Members and we are before this House, that things can get rather worked up and heated. And they will again from time to time.

Mr. Speaker, I have always tried to be careful with my words on how I responded to what was said or how I would say things to others, because I believe that after awhile you must be careful what you say because we live what we say. I think that’s a reflection of where we are today in the sense of taking a strong stance in my past as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. I say Members of the Assembly should and have the right to address the issues that come before them and their constituents about what is needed in our communities and how we represent the people of the Northwest Territories.

So, Mr. Speaker, I have thought and listened intently to what Members have said. As I said earlier this day, that I am prepared to recommit. We are prepared to recommit ourselves to a process of making it work as a Legislative Assembly, the 16th Assembly.

When we sat down shortly after the last general election, we sat down and put a vision together. That vision spelled out where we wanted to go as a Legislative Assembly. Cabinet’s task from that point was to take that vision, take the fiscal resources we had, the programs and services already in place, and try to adapt as much of it as we could so that it represented the vision and goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly. And not without some angst and some concern and frustration, were we able to come out with what we thought was a balanced approach, a balanced document. Number one of having to first recognize we must live within our means.

We sent some strong, tough messages out there. As I spoke about running for Premier, that I was not about status quo. We needed to see change, we needed to see change internally, that is how we do things as government, and we needed to change things in how we interacted with people of the Northwest Territories. So we started that change. Strategic Initiatives Committees, yes, some Members will think that information is dry and hard to go through, but that’s critical information that we are making decisions on that source.

As well, we’ve instituted a process of engaging with regional leadership with aboriginal governments and we are putting in place an engagement with the federal government. We have engaged with them. We followed the old process, but we are following with a different approach.

Mr. Speaker, as Members have talked about, there are a number of issues of concern about responsibility as Members and how we take those. Some particular issues, whether it’s income support or ATCO proposal that came forward or the Discovery Air issue or the supplementary health package. I would say, Mr. Speaker, that with consensus style government has done a lot of work, even in the 16th Legislative Assembly. We’ve had one budget pass through unanimously in this House. We’ve worked on the second one with Members that is before the House now. We’ve worked on a lot of things. Yes, there’s room for improvement. I don’t think anybody here in this Assembly can say there is no room for improvement, there is room in how we do things, in how we coordinate it in getting information out. Part of that is we need commitment from all Members. When we request time for meetings, we need that time for committee members, even if it means cutting into some of their summertime. We need that commitment of time so we can present the work we’ve been working on and how we are doing.

Mr. Speaker, there’s been, and I must say if I have to sit back, yes, I’ve reflected on my personal life and my choices as have been mentioned in the media, mentioned again here in a manner that is very challenging. I have always tried to keep my personal life very, very close to myself. In fact, there have only been a few Members that have been elected as part of the 13th Assembly that still remain here, four of us: myself, Minister Miltenberger, Mr. Krutko, Mrs. Groenewegen. We’ve survived the turmoil of many Assemblies and we are part of the 16th Assembly. This is our fourth term and we’ve seen much happen in those years. Mr. Speaker, it is the time that we have to look at. That time and those places, many things have happened. Some of them we looked at and talked to each other. Here are choices individuals have made in their lives. They need to live their lives, try to create some separation. I would say there are very few people as Members of this Assembly that would know much about my family besides what they find on the web site about what my situation is like. The simple fact is I tried to protect my family and maybe too much as to what might happen in this House.

I refused to do interviews and so on about that situation. Though much could be said to try to give accurate information about what happened. Simply, Mr. Speaker, I have to put on the record, not because I want to but because I believe I have to, because it’s being raised again that, number one, those that cannot protect themselves in this House, so I find in my role, because of my involvement with those individuals, I have to say a few things.

One, the fact that no information has come from what Members have said, media, a breach of confidentiality of information, there has been none. I will state that now on the record in this House. In fact, if you want to talk about information flow between Members and what happens in committee and what happens when it comes to Ministers, we have to look at ourselves. This is a consensus government. We share information. We talk to each other. We share that information openly. The trouble becomes when you are not ready to release it publicly and we are talking about proposals that may go out to the media before we have all the documentation. So that we need to work together is absolutely true.

Number two, Mr. Speaker, again, the decision when it became public, it was ourselves, myself and the person I am involved with, we went to the appropriate people and notified them of what was happening. Yes, Members are concerned about the timing, but we had in mind families first when you talk about families. Deal with families first. It is never good, Mr. Speaker, when a family, man or woman, has to sit their family down and tell them what was happening. That’s the message I had to deliver. I took it very seriously and I took that approach. From that point on, I said nothing about what’s happened, how it’s happened and tried to refute what was being said.

I will not go on beyond this. That is a personal choice I made in my life and I live with that and, as my colleague said, I will be judged. I will be judged by the Creator, as will we all about our own conduct. I have thought much about how I would react to this and how it would come forward and to what level I would go to settle a score of all the things said about myself and my involvement. But, you know, Mr. Speaker, one thing I will still stick to is what my father said to me: be respectful, don’t talk bad about others and try to do the right thing. I am not a perfect man, never said I was and never say we will be, but when it comes to doing the job, Mr. Speaker, as we heard from other Ministers here, we have taken that very seriously. The rules of conduct, the processes involved, how we present information followed all the steps every step of the way.

If I am tarnished a bit because of my personal decisions, then I wear that as well, and I have been as it is very public. But as for the way we worked, it’s a challenging environment to do the work we need to get done. Did we do a 180 turnaround from the vision and goals? I don’t believe so. We have to take the vision and goal and make it fit with what we’re presented with, the resources we have and we are still going to be challenged. Even at those times I remark that financial ripples can lead to dangerous waves. As Minister Miltenberger pointed out, those dangerous waves are here. Now, could I have predicted that when we made that budget preparation and having to live within our means? No, but we said enough. Our expenditures were outweighing our revenues. We had to make some decisions. Yes, we need to do a program review as we go forward to make some of the more substantial changes to how we operate as government, but importantly, Mr. Speaker, when you first take office you are going to have to do some changes immediately because we could not sit and wait for another six months or another year to wait for some of the results of the report.

So we find ourselves in a situation and unfortunately, as Mr. Miltenberger pointed out, there’s been a number of occasions where I have had a visit in my office and been told this event will occur to you in the next couple of days, that your leadership is questioned. I have had to live with that and tried to work with Members. I agree there’s a different way of doing some of our business.

When it came up to this motion, we went into Caucus and I asked if there was a motion. That’s the avenue we used to deal with business in some of those areas. I hope we can use that avenue and that tool to do some of our work.

I think the opportunity is before us. We definitely have to take the message seriously. We have to change the way we do business. I am prepared to make that change and as soon as we can in some areas that we can make the change, we will work at doing that.

I have heard many things today and they do weigh heavy on myself as a responsibility as Premier of the Northwest Territories. They always have. When we talk about programs and services, I have to talk about the people we represent; small communities, large communities, trying to save the jobs we have in the Territory, try to build new jobs in the Territory, try to come up with the right balance.

We won’t always come up with information or a decision that will make everybody happy. But as leadership, all of us will have to make some choices, and choices that we know will make some people back home not happy, I think, because it’s in the best interest of the people of the Northwest Territories who make those choice, for the long-term sustainability of our Territory we make those choices. That’s the focus we’ve been putting on. That’s my personal focus, as Premier of the Northwest Territories, where we go.

There are a lot of issues that we can talk about how we’ve done good things for the people in the North, how we will continue to do those good things in the work that we will produce as Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly.

But we will also be challenged with some decisions to come up. There is a realism there that we will have to park some of these initiatives; some because they will cost too much to implement in this day and age. Will we have to back off on some of our infrastructure? We may have to do that. But right now, as we are working, we think we can do the work that’s required of us to make incremental steps to make the lives better for the people of the Northwest Territories.

I am hoping that as 19 Members we can get the job done. We need to pull it together and get it done. It is not just the seven Members; I realize that. I understand Members very well. I’ve been a Member of this Assembly for four terms. So it’s going to take 19 of us to get it done. It’s not buying the votes. I am absolutely against that policy, that way of doing business: the old boys’ club. From the day I got elected to now when I stand here today, I’ve worked to represent the people equally, even if that meant making choices that would affect my own community, my constituency in the greater good. I’ve done that. I’ve gone back home to tell them the bad news on a number of occasions.

I hope we don’t have to do as much, but I’m prepared to do that again if we have to make more of those types of choices that affect even my constituency. Because at the end of the day, trying to put a package together that builds the North, strengthens the North so when we get through this economic turmoil we come out stronger and better and a better player in Canada, where our children have an opportunity for a future that is better than ours today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I will now go to the mover of the motion for some closing remarks. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank everybody who participated in this debate on this motion today, both Members on this side of the House, and thank you to the Cabinet side for also contributing to this by sharing their thoughts on this motion that’s come before us today.

I want to just wrap up. I don’t want to take an extraordinary amount of time. The Members have very loudly put the concerns that have brought about this motion, this drastic motion, being brought to the floor of the House; as some have indicated, “unprecedented” in this history of this government.

Mr. Miltenberger refers to this as a draconian motion. But I just want to remind Mr. Miltenberger that in fact before the House recessed last time, some Members had said oh, we should have had a leadership review at the two-year mark, that would have been somehow better. But I do want to remind Mr. Miltenberger that we on this side of the House brought forward a motion to have a mid-term review within the next six months, but that motion was nayed by Mr. Miltenberger and so that did not proceed. So let’s remember that, now that you’re asking, you nayed on the last day of session when we tried to bring forward something like that.

So here we are with this motion before us today. Some Cabinet Ministers have chosen to refer to the concerns that are being raised here as our personal issues. These are not our personal issues. These are our constituency issues. We put a list of them right in front of the investment in the Deh Cho Bridge, in supplementary health care, to the board reform. I mean, I went through them all yesterday. I’m not going to through them all again. But we have hit a roadblock in terms of our having our voice and our representation of our constituents heard and respected by this government. These are not personal issues. These are the issues of the constituents who sent us here to represent their interests. And this today -- I’m sorry -- is the absolute frustration felt on this side of the House by a lot of Members. This is not just one or two Members; you’ve heard it. And if you didn’t hear it, then you still don’t get it, which we’ve been wondering about for quite some time, whether or not, even when we do communicate and we do try to share, whether Members who are elected get it.

Now, someone used the words whether taking this action and if we were successful in passing a motion, and I think Members have spoken enough that anybody can do the math now and see that this motion probably isn’t going to pass. But if they think that this is about humbling Members on the other side of the House...This isn’t about us. This is about the people we represent. And nobody sitting on that side of the House has a God-given right to be there. You’re just there because we elected you to take that responsibility. This isn’t about somebody being higher or better or, you know, somebody being humbled. We should all be the humble servants of the people that we’re here to represent, and some have been honoured with the confidence of this House to take on special areas of duties and responsibilities on our behalf. And only see it as that, because when we begin to understand it as something different, that’s when we run into difficulty. We are 19 Members. This is consensus government. We are all equals here.

So for myself, Mr. Speaker, this comes down to an issue of leadership. I’ve been listening to everything. I’m going what is the common denominator here for every one of these issues? Whether we’re talking about an individual Cabinet Minister or an individual departmental initiative that comes forward that affects our people, it comes down to the question of leadership.

I don’t know how this Cabinet can honestly function in this environment. There is a dark cloud hanging over this Assembly. I appreciate Mr. Roland, the Premier, sharing his thoughts with us today. It would be easy for us to say well, let’s just go home and hope it gets better. But we’ve been saying that for months. We’ve sat down, we’ve had the heart-to-heart talks. We have gone to the office. I’m sorry, but there is an issue that cannot be swept under the carpet here, that goes to the leadership and team building over here. I’m sorry, but for me that leadership is not there.

I had high hopes. I thought Premier Roland was an excellent Finance Minister in the last government. As second in command -- I don’t know if the Finance Minister is second in command -- but as a second to Premier Handley, I thought he did an excellent job. But when it came time for him to take the reins, whether it was affected by his personal or family issues or whatever affected it, he was not able to build that team he needed to build over there, and therefore we’ve been coming up against Ministers and initiatives that seem to be happening in random and not with any sense of order and any sense of proper communication and vetting through this side of the House.

So, Mr. Speaker, I’ve been here a long time too, like Premier Roland. Myself, obviously I support the motion. I moved the motion. I appreciate the honest words brought forward by Members on this side of the House. This is not about personalities. I don’t have any magic powers. When I go home to Hay River, I meet with my constituents. I barely have time. We don’t get together. We get together here and I chair the Priorities and Planning committee. I try to bring out the strengths and the thoughts, and we respect each other and try to work together on this side of the House.

Now I see the leadership lacking on that side of the House, and I’m sorry, I think -- and I said this, this morning in my Member’s statement and I’ll say it again -- that the solution to this problem is for the Premier to resign and let somebody else take the job. I’m not going to mince my words here. I’m not known as a person who minces my words.

I listened to every Cabinet Minister over there speak today. I listened to Mr. McLeod, who said that if he failed to communicate, he took responsibility for that. I’m talking about Mr. Bob McLeod. He took responsibility for any parts he had in failing to communicate. In fact, I want to say that Mr. McLeod is one of the Ministers who when you send him an e-mail or ask him a question or send a constituent on to him, he personally answers the communication. I want to tell him today, on the record, how much I appreciate that. I don’t know if it’s something that deputy ministers do or if that’s from his background, but he is a communicator. I mean, sometimes I do give him a hard time about not being a bit more animated in some of his dialogue with us. You know, he even takes that very well, and I like that. I like that about him.

Mr. Michael McLeod...This is the third term that I’ve been in the government with Mr. Michael McLeod. I think Mr. Michael McLeod would make an excellent Premier. I think he could bring...If you want to talk about going forward in this House, what are we going to do after this motion today? This is my chance to give my personal opinion. I don’t see very many options of somebody here who has not gone or taken sides and said things that you can’t take back. We need somebody that can unify us and bring us together. I see Mr. Michael McLeod as somebody that could do that, that could bring this side of the House and that side of the House and let’s get on with business.

Mr. Michael Miltenberger...Minister Michael Miltenberger is great on the energy stuff and he’s very intelligent, he’s very hard working. He lacks people skills. He annoys people.

---Laughter

He annoys people greatly, including me some days, but I cannot take away from him that he is an extremely intelligent person and a very hardworking person. I think he is very key to this Cabinet and I do applaud him on the budget he brought forward. It is a very good piece of work and we thank him for that.

Ms. Lee: passionate, terrible portfolio, I agree with her. What she said today, I agree with. The supplementary health benefits for seniors was a terrible mistake; I’m sorry. But we’ll continue to fight about that later. But for the most part in terms of being...From my experience, and I know that not all Members share my thoughts, but we do need to focus more on the services to the people in the small communities.

Hear! Hear!

---Applause

To my colleague Mr. Jackson Lafferty, a very up and coming finding his stride in a difficult environment, but deserves a lot of our respect too. I wished he was a little more hands on and left a little bit less to his staff in terms of his communications. But somebody with absolute promise in the long term. I thought I would never be back in this government again, but I would say keep your eye on Jackson Lafferty from the Tlicho, because he is somebody that will be here for a long time I hope and will do good things for the people of the Northwest Territories.

---Applause

To the Premier, I just very respectfully ask that he would do good by the people of the Northwest Territories and hold to a standard that has been the normal practice of this House, and that is to order your affairs in such a way as to not erode public confidence. I’m sorry; but no matter what he’s done in the past or how good he’s done, the turn of events of the last six months has caused people in the North -- we’ve heard it all over the place -- to lose confidence in him as Premier. If he could do the honourable thing and resign, he may find himself back on that side of the House again, in a different capacity.

But I do support the motion. I support it and understand fully the frustration of those.

I forgot to mention Mr. Robert C. McLeod.

---Laughter

I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. A very pragmatic leader as well. Somebody who calls it like he sees it and, again, getting acquainted with the role and the job that he has been elected to do. I’m sure that he’ll find his stride. It’s a learning curve; it’s a steep learning curve. I’m sure he’ll find his stride, he will bring great integrity and great service to the people of the Northwest Territories.

---Applause

So, Mr. Speaker, the motion is on the floor. I’ve taken enough time. The Members have shared their view. Please do not take this as a personal issue. This is about getting the business of the House done. I would ask that there be a recorded vote on this. I thank my colleagues for sharing. Thank you.