Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about change. As I was doing this statement, I went to the Webster's Dictionary to find the simplest definition of change: “to become different; to make someone or something different; to become something else.” Last October, the country of Canada wanted change and so did the people of the NWT. Change did happen. People in the Northwest Territories elected 11 new Members and eight returning Members to the Legislative Assembly in hopes that change will occur for the betterment of the NWT. Mr. Speaker, two candidates running for the Premier position spoke about change and working together. The two quotes that resonated with me were, “he or she has a critical role in ensuring the collaboration and productive working relationship between Cabinet, Regular Members, stakeholders, and the public.” The second quote is, “I welcome commitment and look forward to working with every one of you to give the people of Northwest Territories the kind of government they want and deserve.” We need more cooperation and new mechanisms to enable greater input from Regular Members.
Mr. Speaker, I was excited and I was hoping that I was going to be part of the change revolution for the betterment of the residents of the Northwest Territories after listening to these two candidates. Unfortunately, I have not seen much change to date. I am disappointed to say the least. It seems that, once election to Cabinet and Premiers was done, things stayed the same. It has been interesting to see how things have evolved in the past six months. The government stressed we are in a difficult time: excluded members had their wages frozen, rumours about staffing cuts and programs reductions circulated but at the same time the government was advertising for new hires. This is very confusing for our public service, residents, and NWT, and thus the Ordinary MLAs. Mr. Speaker, I do have to give credit to the Premier. We saw some new deputy ministers come in the system and I thank him for that. As well, we saw some re-alignment of portfolios, but some portfolios stayed the same with the deputy ministers. I guess if you look back at the simple definition of change, change happened. However, it is not what we thought it would be when we came here six months ago. Mr. Speaker, I will have some questions for the Premier to help clear up some confusion over there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Members’ statements. Member for Kam Lake.
