Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have detected no ground swell of support for this bill in my constituency. The members of the business community told me they supported the bill, but in discussing it further, it became clear that what members of the business community were interested in was more disclosure about contracts, lease arrangements and the government's financial relations with companies, which I think would clearly fall within the category of invasion of privileged and private relations and would not be subject to disclosure under the bill.
Mr. Chairman, I don't believe my constituents are going to take advantage of this bill, especially the unilingual constituents or constituents whose first language is not English. I believe the cost is excessive. I don't see how it can be made to be done cheaper. I think if my constituents had the choice between more housing, more mental health counselling, more suicide prevention, more programs against family violence, the decision would be clear that this is a luxury that cannot be afforded.
Mr. Chairman, I observed with great interest the results of the passage of the Environmental Bill of Rights Act by a previous Assembly. Despite the lofty principles on which that bill was developed and the great hopes that it would allow government to be more accountable to ordinary people, I do not believe that bill has achieved its expectations.
Mr. Chairman, I may be getting a bit off topic in referring to another bill, but the question, I think, that has to be asked today is whether we're satisfied this bill will help ordinary people get more accountability from government and get more information about the operation of government, or whether it will be highjacked by the media and special interest groups.
Mr. Chairman, I'm not satisfied the bill will achieve the lofty goals that were hoped for. I'm not satisfied the experience in the rest of Canada, with access to information bills, is satisfactory, that it has been a useful tool for individuals. I believe that, especially in a consensus government, this legislature and the ordinary MLAs have the powers and the tools to achieve accountability and access to information unprecedented in this country.
Mr. Chairman, it may not be politically correct to utter these heresies in this Legislature, but I think we have to get realistic about the fact that there are limited financial resources. When I look at the extraordinary cost of establishing an independent office that in no way can take advantage of any of the existing government offices or services, but must be at arm's length, separate, independent, I don't think we're going to bring the costs substantially down from $1 million. Maybe it will only cost $750,000, I don't know, but I don't believe the costs can be substantially reduced.
I think when the time comes to fund this independent office, what the government of the day will find is that tough choices will have to be made about housing and other critical social programs that are going to affect my constituents. I think we have to be tough-minded and realistic today and say...I don't think there have been any great grievances unresolved because of a lack of access to information in the Northwest Territories. I've seen Ministers subjected to incredible barrages of pressure, day and week on end, when a determined MLA wanted information and didn't get it. We have the tools here on hand, Mr. Chairman. All we need to do is use them.
I don't think we need a new, expensive bureaucracy to achieve the worthy goals of letting people know what is going on with their government. I think the tools are within this chamber and with the committees, which I think have incredibly powerful means to get information.
Mr. Chairman, this is not a re-election speech that I'm making here today, but I want to put on the record that I think if this Legislature passes this bill, we will be hard pressed to find the money in the increasingly difficult times that are facing us. I also think when there is a review of this bill in the Commissioner's annual report -- which I'm glad to know will be done -- we'll find that a few special interest groups in Yellowknife and a few enterprising media people will have taken advantage of a very expensive additional bureaucracy that we can't afford and that I don't really think we need.
Forgive me, Mr. Chairman, for being blunt about this, but I suspect that I represent the views of a lot of Members in this chamber who don't want to appear to be going against a motherhood principle. And, I suspect, more importantly I'm confident, that I reflect the views of the majority of my constituents. They are not asking me to have this bill passed. I'm not getting pressured that this is an important piece of legislation. My constituents are talking about jobs, they are talking about housing, they are talking about support for the family, children and social issues.
I don't think this bill is going to make one jot of difference to the things we really care about in the majority of our communities. Thank you.