Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government has not done well in the handling of its staff housing policy. Mr. Speaker, we expect leadership and a sense of clear policy direction. In this case, I believe most of us agree with the policy objective, however, there has been a lack of clarity in placing those objectives in front of us. Much of this difficulty could have been avoided if the government had announced its policy in less detail. Many of the details could then have been worked out with various employers and associations through joint consultation. Instead changes are being made as a result of a bewildering variety of assaults on the policy from many quarters. It has made the government look very bad in my opinion. I believe it is now too late to commence a process of joint consultation, since the policy has been announced in considerable and ever-changing detail.
Agreeing to joint consultation, Mr. Speaker, should not be seen as a mechanism for subverting the will of the policy-makers. It should not be seen as a sign of weakness. It should be viewed as the very best way of ironing out the details with the people most affected by the policy. This is not a major public policy issue, Mr. Speaker. It is really a matter of a relationship between our government and the staff it employs to carry out its issues and its will.
The degree to which this issue is now dominating the political agenda of this Assembly is an affront when there are so many major issues affecting the future of our territories to be considered. If we find this issue dominates our time and effort to the exclusion of other pressing matters, Mr. Speaker, the fault clearly lies with this government in the way this issue has been handled.
I shall not be pursuing it publicly in this House because I believe it is a matter between our government and its staff. It should not be dominating an Assembly which is supposed to deal with all the major issues that are affecting the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
---Applause