This is page numbers 30 - 77 of the Hansard for the 12th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was going.

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Charles Dent

Charles Dent Yellowknife Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with my motion concerning Tabled Document 14-12(6).

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to proceed with his motion. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Please proceed, Mr. Dent.

Charles Dent

Charles Dent Yellowknife Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and honourable colleagues.

WHEREAS, the document, "Open for Business" Privatizing the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, has been tabled in this House;

AND WHEREAS, it is in the interest of the public for the document to be discussed by this Legislature;

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife North, that Tabled Document 14-12(6), "Open for Business" Privatizing the Northwest Territories Power Corporation," be moved into committee of the whole for discussion today.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Your motion is in order. To the motion.

An Hon. Member

Question.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Question is being called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

This will also be placed on the order paper. Item 15, motions. The honourable Member for Inuvik, Mr. Koe.

Fred Koe Inuvik

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with my motion regarding the terms of reference for the termination of the contract for the Hay River group home.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to proceed with his motion. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Please proceed, Mr. Koe.

Fred Koe Inuvik

Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

WHEREAS, the document "Terms of Reference for an Independent Review - Contract Termination Hay River Group Home" has been tabled in this House;

AND WHEREAS, it is in the interest of the public for the document to be discussed by the legislature;

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for North Slave that Tabled Document 7-12(6), "Terms of Reference for an Independent Review - Contract Termination Hay River Group Home" be moved into committee of the whole for discussion today.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Your motion is in order. To the motion.

An Hon. Member

Question.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Question is being called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Item 15, motions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with my motion today with regard to the recommendation to revoke the appointment of the Honourable Rebecca Mike from the Executive Council.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to proceed with Motion 5-12(6). Are there any nays? There are no nays. Please proceed, Mr. Gargan.

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

WHEREAS, pursuant to the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, section 55(1), the Legislative Assembly recommends to the Commissioner the appointment of Members to the Executive Council;

AND WHEREAS, pursuant to section 55(2), the persons appointed to hold office during the pleasure of the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS, the Assembly, pursuant to these powers, has chosen the Honourable Rebecca Mike to sit as a Member of the Executive Council;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that this Assembly formally revoke the pleasure of the Assembly from the appointment as an Executive Member of the Honourable Rebecca Mike;

AND FURTHER, that this Assembly recommends that a new Member be chosen to sit on the Executive Council.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Your motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, since November of last year, discussions have been made with regard to the mid-term review and some of the performances of the Ministers. In the discussions in the Members' statements, one of the things that came out was there was unanimous agreement that the Honourable Rebecca Mike's performance, both leading up to the review and during the review, was unacceptable resulting in a grade of "f."

There are three major areas of concern with this Minister. The Minister is not open when questioned by Members. The purpose of question period is to raise areas of concern with the Minister, not personally attack her. However, the Minister takes all questions as an attack and deals with them in a hostile and defensive manner. The Minister has also failed to take full responsibility for her department, instead constantly referring to the problems left by previous Ministers. These were statements made, Madam Speaker, during the mid-term review. Members were also appalled when Ms. Mike admitted she disregarded the interim report of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. Those reports were issued to allow the government to begin working on this important area. It is inexcusable that the Minister has essentially ignored these reports. The third one was with regard to Social Services. It is incumbent upon her to push social issues in Cabinet. Ms. Mike has shown no leadership in this area. As a result, social issues do not appear to be a Cabinet priority.

Madam Speaker, these are some of the comments that were made at that time. During the last several weeks, this has been discussed by ordinary Members, to a point where we weren't going to get anywhere with the way things were going in that area. All ordinary Members know that we have discussed this in length and we seem to be at a stalemate on what to do. Naturally, Mr. Ningark, as a representative on OMC, did make a statement to that regard. He made a statement to the effect that although they are not happy with the Minister, it was up to the Premier to do this.

I believe on December 4, there was a motion passed in this House to rename the Government Leader "Premier," which gives her the further powers on this responsibility. If my understanding is correct, the Premier in any other province, or the Prime Minister for that matter, deals with his Cabinet as he sees fit. This was passed unanimously by the Members of this House. Unfortunately, the Government Leader chose not to address the issue at that time.

Madam Speaker, during the next few months, there are going to be a lot of issues that are coming up that the Minister has to deal with. One of them is social reform. In that regard, we have a situation where social assistance has to be addressed, family allowance has to be addressed, social security has to be addressed, shelters for women have to be addressed, daycare has to be addressed, disabled persons have to be addressed, blind people have to be addressed, families of abused environments have to be addressed, the family law review committee has to be addressed and, also, the senior citizens' homes all have to be addressed. Naturally, the Greenway group home has to be addressed as well.

Those issues are not going to go away because the Minister is responsible. It concerns me that if we don't address those situations and the Minister who is responsible for that area, we might be put into a situation where it is unfair to the Minister, herself, whether she can carry out that big a responsibility.

I have a concern, Madam Speaker. In my constituency, we don't have that big of a social assistance issue. Unemployment is quite low, but I have a lot of senior citizens, a lot of children and a lot of women in my constituency who need to have their concerns addressed. I'm afraid that even this kind of load, which isn't to this point that great a work-load, hasn't been responded to in the appropriate way.

Madam Speaker, before I close, I made a statement earlier and I want to comment on it. My statement was not with regard to the Minister but with regard to the responsibilities carried out by other Ministers. We give certain Minister's lighter loads and that is one of my biggest concerns. I feel it is unfair for some Ministers to be carrying more than their share of the responsibilities. I don't think that's right. Any Minister who thinks it is should resign. I don't think it's fair for certain Ministers to be carrying out everything, while others are not. That was the other concern I wanted to talk about.

I will say this, to all the Members here -- or at least the Members who wish to address this -- that this issue has gone on long enough. The media has picked up on it. The Premier has tried to address it but I wasn't satisfied with the responses I was getting and I walked out of the meeting. We have to stand up in this House and answer to the public. I'm doing this in fairness to my constituency, but also in fairness to the honourable Minister of Social Services. Perhaps it is time we resolve the issue instead of waiting and having her worried all summer long and not able to concentrate on her job.

I would hope that, once we resolve this, we can let the issue rest. I don't intend to get up again in this House and make statements with Members who don't back up what they say. I certainly don't want to be put into a situation where I'm the fall guy for the rest of the Members. I would like to say to the Member that I think, in all fairness, we have to deal with the issue now. It's not going to wait. I can make a prediction right now, Madam Speaker, and that is, from henceforth to the end of our mandate, I don't think there will be another motion of this kind coming up. Thank you.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. To the motion. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Jim Antoine Nahendeh

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. As a seconder to this motion, I would like to say a few words. The reason I agreed to second this motion is because we're here as legislators to represent our people in the communities and to provide the best programs and services we can to them. We bring the issues into the House and try to get answers from different Ministers who have been elected by all of us to take on different departments, lead them, and take on the responsibility as Ministers.

Our job here is to try to represent our people by asking questions and by trying to get answers from the Ministers. Since the review and since these proceedings are now viewed publicly on television in the communities, people in the communities watch these proceedings and know now what is going on in the House. They know what kinds of questions are being asked and what kinds of answers we're getting. The people in the communities see the kinds of responses we're receiving.

I've been told, many times, that there seems to be a lack of response from the Honourable Rebecca Mike on important questions. As a result of that, I thought it would be good to see if we could make some changes. I said this privately and I'm saying it publicly now that I think we've been dealing with this long enough and this is the place to make a decision. We're all elected here to make decisions.

I'm supporting this motion of my colleague to see what everybody here feels like. I agree with my honourable colleague, Mr. Gargan, that once we decide how we are going to deal with this motion, we leave it at that. Some Members wanted to leave it with a strong statement. I agreed with that, however, a strong statement would be made, but the problem would still be there. If Members in this House feel she's doing well enough, they have to vote that way.

The other problem I have is the rest of the Cabinet Members are carrying very heavy loads. The Premier indicated that she assigns the work-load according to the abilities of the Members of the Cabinet. She made that statement to us yesterday in Caucus. I want to point out the work-load that we have for the rest of our term, with the amalgamation of Social Services and Health that is coming, and the revision of the income programs. There is a lot of work. I just wanted to clear the air by agreeing to have my name as a seconder to this motion. We'll put it on the floor and decide here whether we support this motion or not. Mahsi.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. To the motion. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Whitford.

Tony Whitford

Tony Whitford Yellowknife South

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This issue has been on my mind quite a lot since the discussion and I don't think that since December 3, 1992, I've gone through as bad a few hours as I have in this last 24 hours. I thought I would just stand up to say that this morning when the statement was made by our representative of OMC, I believe it was collective. I had an opportunity to speak in OMC where the issue was at its peak. Where the issue is of concern and it's of concern to all Members, and it's not that I disagree with my honourable friend, Mr. Gargan, in all of the things that he's said and what Mr. Antoine has said on behalf of the Members that he speaks for, but I thought that the statement said it all.

I personally had asked the Premier when I had a chance to speak with her in a meeting, and I expressed my concerns. The Premier assured me that everything was okay. I wanted to leave it at that because I personally have no problem with the decision that the Premier makes as far as her Cabinet. I was in her Cabinet and any decision that she made, I followed. The statement this morning said exactly that. That the Premier has been notified of the decisions of many of the Members, my feelings included. I was assured by the Premier that there was no problem that she couldn't handle. I trust the Premier and I respect her decision. With that, Madam Speaker, I will not support the motion but I will not oppose it. I will abstain from voting on this as was advised by my constituents, who I took the time to phone yesterday. It was also the decision of the Caucus that I belong to. With that, Madam Speaker, thank you.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. To the motion. The honourable Member for Kitikmeot, Mr. Ng.

Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I, like many of my colleagues, have had some concerns with the performance of the honourable Member in this House since I have become a Member. I have seen some improvement since the fall and I think she is making a concerted effort toward improving her performance, particularly in answering questions in this house. However, I feel that the issue of addressing the Cabinet Member's performance and the accountability as noted in the statement by the chairman of the Ordinary Members' Caucus this morning is not a direct responsibility of us as ordinary Members of this House. I believe the Madam Premier was elected by Members of this House to provide the leadership to the Northwest Territories, to the Legislative Assembly, and to the Cabinet. I believe she has a responsibility in dealing with this problem if she perceives it as a problem. That would include any performance and the accountability of her Cabinet Members. Because of that, Madam Speaker, I don't feel it's my decision; I'll be voting against the motion. Thank you.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. To the motion. The honourable Member for Baffin South, Mr. Pudlat.

Kenoayoak Pudlat Baffin South

(Translation) Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have a short comment to make with regard to the motion. During our meetings of Ordinary Member's Caucus I have stated, not because I'm reluctant or afraid of any Ministers or Members, but I have stated during our OMC meetings that I would talk about this in the House. I would state my position this time around, not in OMC, as I stated earlier, Madam Speaker. I have not changed my mind with regard to the vote. Myself, I haven't been able to come to a conclusion as to where I might stand. I am not sure whether I'll be able to be voting against or for the motion. It's not because I'm afraid of what certain Members might say. That's just the way I feel personally. I haven't been able to come to a conclusion. Not because I'm trying to take it easy on any other Members or not because I'm trying to be different. I will be undecided with regard to this particular motion. I just wanted to tell you that I will probably abstain from voting on the motion. Thank you, Madam Speaker.