Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Member for the question. I am no stranger to conflict in this House as I'm sure anyone who's been following me knows, but I have always approached it, you know, what you bring to the table -- or what you bring to the floor to represent the interests of your constituents or the interests that have been agreed upon by government and then the personal conflicts that can get out of hand. And I don't want to see any personal conflicts in this Assembly. You know, I want to see us all pulling together as one team that moves forward into the future with a clear mandate for our government and clear priorities for our constituents. So I think there's already a number of tools that are built into our conventions that have been tried and tested over the years. There's fireside chats which allow Members of the Assembly, Regular Members of the Assembly, to pull the Premier aside and say here are some concerns we have that we'd like you to address. I think there needs to be a strong relationship between the chair of the accountability and oversight committee and the Premier. The chair should be seen as the political leader of the Regular Members, and just as the Premier is a political leader of the territory, and they should be working together to figure out where those pressure points are and where we can move forward. And fundamentally, people have to have a thick skin. You know, you're going to get criticized if you're a Cabinet Minister. That just comes with the territory. And we need to know that it's not personal and know the difference and the line between that, and I think the Premier can be a good coach for that because oftentimes the Premier is not responsible for the service delivery that's going to be the number one concern of constituents. You know, the health Minister is or the housing Minister is. So the Premier can be a good quarterback for the Cabinet and make sure the Cabinet is feeling supported and knows that it's not personal; it's just part of the territory. And I think that's a really important tone to set here, and I think regular communication with the Regular Members is crucial. And that's why I also propose using caucus more fully to discuss these things where our hats are left on the door, and we can come to terms with where we find those pressure points. Thank you.
Kieron Testart on Questions by Members
On December 7th, 2023. See this statement in context.
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