Minister of Social Services, Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. If the Member is asking me to provide this House with the plan, I think I already said that we've been having our regional superintendents involved in these planning sessions to get their input, and their next meeting will be next month. At that time, I will be able to provide a better picture for the Member as to how the plan will look. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. Your question was somewhat vague, it was more of a comment with regard to that. You did pose two questions in there, although you know a supplementary only allows for one. So, can I ask you to rephrase it and pose your supplementary question.

Thank you. Minister of Social Services, Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I certainly will do that.

Item 5, oral questions. Item 6, written questions. Item 7, returns to written questions. Item 8, replies to opening address. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis.

Mr. Lewis' Reply

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Out of respect to Members, I will not keep you long, but I do have a few things to say, Madam Speaker. Lately, I've noticed the energy that characterized this Assembly over the first two years of its mandate has been somewhat diminished. It could have been the effect of this very brutal winter we've just endured or it could be that Members now realize that the next general election is only one and a half years away and they've become very, very thoughtful.

Perhaps they can't decide whether they should rest on their accomplishments and not risk making huge mistakes, or to keep the really hot issues until a month or so closer to election time. Anyway, Madam Speaker, I sense there's a lull and people are waiting for something to happen. Although I have some belief in fate and luck, I also believe that needed changes can be made to happen if people want them to happen.

I've been a Member of this Legislative Assembly for six and a half years and have spent a total of more than 30 years in some form of public service in the Northwest Territories. Over that period of time, I believe I've been a very good observer and have found ways of expressing things that go on around me in a clear fashion. The crisis facing governments everywhere, Madam Speaker, is the loss of public trust. It is clear to me that the public wants to be more meaningfully involved in the democratic process than the month or so leading up to a general election.

This was driven home to me by the number of inquiries I got from the public prior to the referendum on the Charlottetown accord. Those were busy days for all of us and, of course, we can all recall our own plebiscites on division. The public was interested and very much involved. As a territorial MLA, I find little comfort to hear, very frequently, on the streets that the territorial government has no legitimacy, that it has no real accountability, and that it is an interim government that will very soon disappear. This, Madam Speaker, is just not from aboriginal people. It is a much more general sentiment than we are, perhaps, aware of.

I've fought two territorial elections. In both elections, I promised to work hard for some form of government that will represent all northern citizens. My main interest over the past six years has been one thing, Madam Speaker, and that one thing is accountability. I haven't done a very good job of expressing my concern about this issue since Members, for some reason, don't want to talk about it. It's about accountability that I wish to talk today.

Bluntly stated, Madam Speaker, this government has no real accountability. As long as there continues to be no accountability, the public will continue to be cynical about whose interests are being served in this Legislative Assembly. People are going to continue to question, whose government is this? Is it really a public government or is it just a government of MLAs?

For ten years, there's been much talk about the evolution of the consensus style of government to make it more accountable. Even minor changes, such as conducting voting for Premier and Cabinet by MLAs and the public was not easily agreed to by Members. Some who are still here will recall that. There was initial hostility to the idea that we should be doing what had been done in private in public. We seem to be much more attached to the idea that we should use the system used to elect popes, where we did it in a little back room and we blew a puff of smoke when we chose our Premier.

Since the passage of the Nunavut Act and the realization that the western part of the Northwest Territories will soon evolve separately, changes must be made to the current system of government if it is going to be acceptable to the public. One change often advocated, following the example of the Dene, is to have the Premier of the Northwest Territories elected by popular vote. It is only by having the Premier elected in this fashion that the public will have the opportunity to vote on competing views of government. It provides legitimacy and accountability to government if it is formed, following some process of public approval. The current system has no form of public approval and will remain illegitimate unless this is somehow remedied.

I shall, today, table a document outlining how this could be achieved. Members will recall that I tabled another document recently outlining the technical problems in electing a leader by popular vote. I intend to table a document which places two options before Members. One is the municipal model that is used to choose aldermen and mayors and one is a modification of the system that we currently use in this Assembly.

Madam Speaker, I should add that although I'm tabling this document, it reflects the thinking of many Members of this Assembly, both past and present. Talk will go nowhere, however, unless the ideas of Members are put onto paper so that discussion can take place in response to a concrete proposal. We talk continually about reshaping northern government. The process will be absolutely meaningless unless the basic problem of accountability is solved.

I know some Members and some politicians enjoy the status quo. It gives each MLA a vote in choosing a Premier and Cabinet. Yet, this is precisely why there is no accountability. As long as Members insist on choosing Premier and Ministers and making up the whole agenda as they go along, the image of instability, incoherence, lack of vision, and all those words will persist. I made it clear that it is my interest in preserving some form of public government, and this is what drew me into politics in the first place, because I could see it was in trouble.

I believe it is essential for the well-being of all northerners that we address the accountability issue. Unless we do so, this public government will die a slow death. The federal government is hearing the same message, much more clearly now than ever before. The voices they here are these: We want nothing to do with the territorial government; it has no legitimacy; and it is not accountable anyway. It makes it very simple for the federal government to make cuts to housing, to fail to pay medical bills, to place a cap on the GDP for our financial agreement and so on. It makes it very, very simple to say there are all kinds of uncertainty and we will play it by ear.

Madam Speaker, we must solve the accountability issue. It is no longer good enough that the public can see our Territorial Leadership Committee on television. It is not good enough that they can hear the same messages from leadership candidates on television as MLAs do in the leadership debates. They should be able to make their own choices, on the basis of competing visions of what government does or plans to do. The longer we delay this, the more vulnerable we will get, the weaker we will appear to the federal government and the less likelihood that public government will survive.

I urge Members not to sweep this issue of accountability under the carpet in the same way we did in Cambridge Bay. The longer this issue is delayed, the deeper in the mud, in my opinion, this government will sink.

I wish to raise one more issue of accountability, and that is recall. If we are to reshape northern government, we must look at the devices of direct democracy which keep people in touch with their government. Members should be reminded that they do not have a guaranteed annual income for four or five years. They should be aware that they are always accountable. Probably the single most persuasive reason for recall in the Northwest Territories was the adoption of a code of conduct by the legislature and the introduction of a motion by Mr. Kakfwi on zero tolerance towards violence. If these initiatives are to have any meaning, there should be some mechanism to enforce their provisions.

Recall is a political instrument that can be used for a wide variety of purposes to recall a Member who has lost the trust of the electorate. There is no more basic form of accountability than this, which would apply to all MLAs. I believe that these two elements, direct election of the Premier by the people and the subjection of all MLAs to potential recall by the people, would go a long way to making the Government of the Northwest Territories a public government which all northerners would recognize and respect as their government.

It frustrates me a little, Madam Speaker, that we have a mass of people working on reshaping northern government, yet no one, not a soul, is working on the basic issue of accountability, which is what government is all about. Unless you have accountability, you don't have a legitimate government. If this government is to survive in any form, that problem has to be fixed. If this public government of ours fails, it will be our fault, since we did nothing to make it acceptable to the public we serve even though the problem has been staring us in the face for many, many years. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you. Item 8, replies to opening address. Item 9, petitions. The honourable Member for Natilikmiot, Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a petition. It is actually a copy of a petition to the honourable David Dingwall, the Minister responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, from the Kikitak Housing Corporation in Gjoa Haven. There are 128 signatures here. Thank you.

Mr. Ningark, in reviewing your petition, it is to a federal Minister and carbon copied to our Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. It should be placed under tabled documents as opposed to petitions. Petitions, under our rules, only allow for petitions to our government or this Assembly. Thank you.

Item 9, petitions. The honourable Member for Baffin Central, Ms. Mike.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have Petition 6-12(5) from the community of Clyde River, with 75 signatures, regarding the high prices of infant formulas and Pampers.

Thank you. Item 9, petitions. Item 10, reports of standing and special committees. Item 11, reports of committees on the review of bills. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Finance has reviewed Bill 18, Write-Off Of Debts Act, 1993-94, and wishes to report that Bill 18 is now ready for the committee of the whole. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 11, reports of committees on the review of bills. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis.

Report On Bill 10

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly on the Standing Committee on Legislation's review of Bill 10, An Act to Repeal the Metric Conversion Act. I wish to report that Bill 10 is now ready for the committee of the whole.

Thank you. Pursuant to rule 70(5), Bills 10 and 18 are now ready and ordered into committee of the whole. Item 12, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would like to table Tabled Document 53-12(5) which is a document called Improving Accountability, which I would also like to add to the documents prepared for the Caucus meeting.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Item 12, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Natilikmiot, Mr. Ningark.