Thank you, Mr. Chair. The two, two, and two convention has been in place since 1999, over 20 years. That's the way that previous Assemblies have set themselves up, and there was very good reason for doing that, to try to ensure that there is some form of regional balance in terms of the make-up of Cabinet. This issue was reviewed by the transition matters committee in the last Assembly. Some of us sat on that committee. We gave it careful consideration, and we couldn't even agree amongst ourselves as to how to change it, so the committee was silent on the issue but said that this is something that does need some examination. In fact, that committee recommended that it should probably be rolled into a future mandate for the Electoral Boundaries Commission as part of our constitutional development discussions and debate.
I am more than a bit surprised that this has come to the floor this morning. I had no notice from the honourable Member that this was going to come to the floor, and I don't think that's the way we should be trying to do business, especially at this time.
I have worked very hard for most of my adult life in the Northwest Territories to support and work closely with Indigenous governments. My time on city council, we had not a great relationship with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, but I worked to help negotiate a memorandum of understanding so that we could have joint council meetings. I've worked closely with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation on Giant Mine issues, and I think I still have a good working relationship with their leadership. While I have some sympathy with some of the arguments, perhaps, put forward by my friend, Ndilo is within the city limits. Detah is not. There are discussions, of course, ongoing between YKDFN and the City of Yellowknife about their relationship moving forward and where a boundary may be drawn. In fact, I'm the one who actually brought the issue of Yellowknife MLAs being able to use our constituency work expense allowance to assist with events in Ndilo. If you want to blame somebody for bringing that issue forward, you can blame me. I believe it was the right decision on the part of the Board of Management in the last Assembly to allow Yellowknife MLAs to do that.
This issue of constitutional development and the regional representation within Cabinet, which is a part of a much bigger discussion, it is something that we set our minds to at the beginning of this Assembly, and we agreed at that point to maintain that. I am not prepared to reopen that discussion at this point. I believe this is something that is a live issue. There needs to be an opportunity for public input and debate, and there will be none if this proceeds in this manner here this morning. I don't believe that that's appropriate.
These are matters that I think we should ask an Electoral Boundaries Commission to examine. That is something that we are going to discuss this weekend in Fort Smith, on what sort of mandate they may have, and I believe it is time to have this kind of discussion and debate as it is at any point in our history. However, to try to do this on the fly, on the floor of the House this morning, I didn't know about this: no public debate, no opportunity for the public to have any discussion. I don't think this is the right time or place to do it.
Lastly, Mr. Chair, as I understand the rules for the Territorial Leadership Committee are set by Caucus. We do not have the authority to change that ourselves. If a change is to be made, this needs to go back to Caucus. I do not want to have another discussion in Caucus about this. I think we need to finish this debate discussion and proceed, and we need to do this in a unified manner. Trust and relationships, we have to start to move forward in a unified way to get results for our communities, for our people. I want to get back to work. Thanks, Mr. Chair.