Mr. Speaker, I also want to comment on the performance of the Minister of Renewable Resources. It is really unfortunate that he is sick today. I gave him a note yesterday, maybe that didn't make him feel too well. I often look across the room and see him in his characteristic pose, as he concentrates on the business of the House, sitting there with his eyes closed, listening intently with his head drooped forward. We should be grateful, Mr. Speaker, that the Minister doesn't snore when he is concentrating so hard.
---Laughter
To be serious, I have been impressed with a number of goals this Minister has achieved during his time on Cabinet. He has finally begun to address long-standing issues with regard to the management and operation of the Hanging Ice Bison Ranch and he acted promptly to halt the exportation of live Buffalo when it became clear that this was not in the interest of the Fort Smith residents. I commend him for that. I have been impressed with the role he has taken in working to combat the lies being spread by animal right activities and in the way he has represented the Northwest Territories well in his international discussions with European Parliaments. Some of my constituents feel that this Member still carries the regrettable conviction that he had on impaired driving, but I believe and I honestly think that he has learned much from that experience and conducts himself appropriately.
Mr. Speaker, I wonder why this Minister, with all his apparent abilities -- and I know he is quite smart -- has not shown the initiative to achieve more. When I look back to when I first became Minister with portfolio responsibilities for Social Services -- which included corrections -- Personnel, the Women's Secretariat, WCB and the Highway Transport Board, I felt like a TV changing channels every few minutes when we were trying to get information on different areas. Why is this new Minister not taking a greater share of the work that needs to be done at the Cabinet level? He is committed to effective public consultation and he shows a lot of promise in following through on the issues that concern people the most. I only wish that he was doing more. In fact, some of the people who observe this House on a regular basis have commented: If you want something to remain at the status quo, ask Mr. Arngna'naaq to take it. Sometimes I don't believe I agree with Mr. Arngna'naaq. With those reasons, I would give Mr. Arngna'naaq a C-plus for being a Minister. He hasn't been a Minister for that long, so I think it is only fair to assess him.
Mr. Speaker, that brings me to the Honourable Kelvin Ng, the newest Minister of Cabinet who has responsibilities for the important Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Mr. Ng brings a wealth of municipal experience to his role and is an excellent choice on paper to head up this department. I think as a new student in his class, I would give him a B, largely because of his strong performance in handling the recent state of emergency in the Sahtu and for his commitment to finally move ahead and deal with outstanding legislative issues in the review of municipal statutes.
Mr. Speaker, in his brief tenure, Mr. Ng has successfully made every attempt to address our water and sewer issue in the town of Fort Smith. I thank him for that. There are still some more details to be worked out, but I am confident that he will complete this commitment. He has continued to secure $400,000 for our recreational complex and another $2 million in next year's budget. However, I should note that little progress has been made in addressing the town boundary issues. I am concerned that he is showing some signs of picking up some bad habits of his Cabinet colleagues. When I look at the town boundary issue, there is one issue that the community has collectively agreed on: the band; the Metis; the town; and, the residents of Bell Rock -- and it isn't very often you get every group in Fort Smith to agree on one issue, believe me -- and they strongly supported the request for the boundary issue to be downsized. Unfortunately, his department didn't allow it.
When I stated earlier about picking up some bad habits of his Cabinet colleagues, I an reminded of his actions of sending my honourable colleague from Baffin Central a note in which he used totally inappropriate language. To make the reference he did in that note and recognizing that it was around International Women's Day, was absolutely unacceptable. The honourable Minister should know to rephrase that type of thing in the future. I wish him well and I believe he is quite competent as a Minister and I'm sure his department will do well under his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to comment now about my colleague, the Honourable Richard Nerysoo. I think he's been a Minister who has always maintained a reputation for supporting the equality of all people and for being sensitive to the difficult issues surrounding human rights. I certainly give the Minister a lot of credit for that. But in so many other ways, I believe this Minister's performance has been a little bit disappointing. Even with all of his experience, I think at times he appears to have motivational problems. I don't know why it is, maybe it's because he's been here too long. I think all Members have seen occasions when sometimes he forgets about meetings, he neglects to follow through with political commitments, and I wouldn't say takes a cavalier attitude towards the business of his portfolio, but at times, he may have a tendency to do that.
I commend him for succeeding in bringing forward a new Education Act, Mr. Speaker, but with 163 clauses in it and 80 or so amendments, it's really difficult to say that it was a good act that was brought forward. Think about it, Mr. Speaker; if this had been any other Minister bringing forward any other bill, the entire process would have been scrapped by now and the Minister would have been sent back to the drawing board. In fact, I would have liked to have seen this House give Mr. Lewis's private Member's bill as much special consideration as it has given Mr. Nerysoo's bill to establish a new Education Act.
I don't know why this is happening, but I honestly believe that in many cases, this Minister sometimes makes political commitments and then forgets to tell his department about what commitments he has made. I think the trick is, Mr. Speaker, to be sure to call his deputy minister or his executive assistant. Not that the Members of this House should have to do that, but I say that because the Minister is indeed fortunate to have a good executive assistant who is as diligent as she is. I really believe that Hal Gerein and John Quirke, his two deputy ministers, are two of the better deputy ministers in the government, along with Ken Lovely and Andrew Gamble from Transportation.
There have been many times when I have brought a constituency concern to either Mr. Gerein or Mr. Quirke, and I've always been impressed with the prompt and thoughtful manner in which the matter has been resolved. I believe that's good government in action, Mr. Speaker. I should also say that it's nice to see deputy ministers who not only make a contribution to the public service but who show a lot of leadership when it comes to getting things done.
Mr. Speaker, it is quite likely that if I make this Minister's grade lower than what I'm thinking of giving him, then it wouldn't be fair, in my assessment. I really believe that this Minister's grade should be a B, considering all of his experience and knowledge. There is one thing, Mr. Speaker, I will say that Mr. Nerysoo does have a pretty good memory and he is fair in most of his judgements -- and I say most of his judgements.
I will say, however, that I was concerned about a matter that my honourable colleague from Inuvik raised about a public notice distributed by the Department of Safety and Public Services, particularly because it was with regard to gambling laws. When the Minister indicated that the document had been sent out without the knowledge of either himself or his deputy minister, I found this to be quite embarrassing, especially since he acknowledged the notice was not entirely factual. I encouraged him to take action to retract and correct the information but, to date, he hasn't.
Mr. Speaker, on the other hand, I want to comment that I'm grateful to the Minister for his support for educational capital projects in Fort Smith. We now have the college headquarters back where it belongs; in Fort Smith. We all know that Fort Smith was the original home of Thebacha College and the first head office of Arctic College. We also have the academic building nearing completion on the college campus, and I believe this will enhance the already first rate education that our post-secondary students receive. I am pleased that the historic JBT Elementary School, which was built in 1958, is finally receiving the renovations it has needed for a long, long time. I want to thank the Minister for his support of these projects. He should know that it has been appreciated by my constituents.
This Minister is also to be complimented on completing his long-overdue revisions of the Mine Safety Act and for spearheading the review of the liquor laws. I also note that he has recently made a commitment to set some new priorities for the review of labour policy and legislation, something that I think is very much overdue. But on these initiatives, Mr. Speaker, it seems that at times he had to be prodded by honourable Members of this House. I think he should have taken more initiative to follow through without always having to wait for Members to pressure him, because Members get tired of prodding Ministers.
And there are many areas where he needs to do more work. There are problems continuing with respect to student financial assistance and the very important teacher education program. He seems to have overlooked the whole area of labour standards, and I believe our standards for safety enforcement have not improved. They may even have deteriorated. So, Mr. Speaker, to sum up, with all of his experience and skills, I think many of us have been disappointed that this Minister has not done more. I must say that I was also disappointed, Mr. Speaker, when this Minister rose in the House during my absence to raise a point of order regarding my decision to table an unsigned letter that dealt with a number of policy breaches.
I can accept the fact that the honourable Member disagreed with my decision, but I can't understand why he chose not to raise his objection at the time the letter was tabled, or to even phone me in my constituency, where I had accepted a previous invitation to participate in winter carnival duties, to let me know of his intentions. I found his actions pretty hard to understand, other than on a purely political level. I found that to be quite disappointing. Later on in my reply, I want to return to the matter of the so-called unsigned letter and provide the House with additional remarks on that subject. But for now, I want to express my disappointment in the Minister's actions in dealing with that particular matter. Before, I had a lot of admiration for this Minister's sense of fairness but I lost a lot of respect for him when he chose to handle the matter of his point of order in that particular fashion.
Mr. Speaker, with that, I will state -- as I have said -- that I think the Minister deserves a B. But if he is going to continue to be in this House, he should create some new vibrant energy because I think he's quite capable, no doubt, and I think he can do a lot better.
Mr. Speaker, now I move on to the Honourable John Todd. In my view, this Cabinet Minister should get one of the highest marks in Cabinet. I say that not because I like him personally, but because he has proven over and over to me that he is a man of his word. Of all the Members of Cabinet, he may be the only one who, I believe, has the guts to give you a straight answer, and I admire him for that. A lot of times I don't like his answers, Mr. Speaker, but I respect the way he's willing to let you know the truth. Indeed, that's such a rare quality these days. I think many people are starting to think about how refreshing it would be to see a straight shooter like Mr. Todd become our next Premier.
He certainly has a number of qualities that would distinguish him for that role, Mr. Speaker. He represents the north very well, both on the national and international stage. He's sensitive to the traditions, needs and aspirations of the aboriginal people of his region and he has also learned the importance of listening carefully to elders. He can be forceful, but he's also a good communicator, and he has a talent for team building. He surrounds himself with competent people like Rick Bargery, his EA, who I think is very competent, sensitive, fair and very good at his work; also Andrew Gamble, his deputy minister in the department. I've noticed a great improvement in his ability to be patient ever since we first served together on the Standing Committee on Finance.
Mr. Speaker, when we first started on the Standing Committee on Finance, I recall Mr. Todd wanting an answer right away, wanting the committee to move quickly. I sent him a note and I said, Mr. Todd, if you want to continue to be chairman, you must learn to be patient. I think, perhaps, that he listened to my advice about that because he is becoming a little bit more patient in comparison to when he first got elected as a Member.
He also has a great sense of humour. It's difficult to stay mad at him for too long, unless of course you happen to be my honourable colleague, Mr. Patterson, who's not here today. I think that people respect him for his sensitivity, his fairness and his tendency to become intolerant of procrastinators. However, Mr. Speaker, he's not perfect yet so I'll only give him an A-minus.
One of the areas where I think he's going to have to be cautious has to do with the way he may be pushing too much on the northern accord. He needs to remember that our pace in dealing with these issues may not be the same as his. He has to show greater respect for that. I believe that this could be this Minister's downfall. He's approaching this sensitive issue as though he's too much of a businessman, as though he's a builder and a developer. He has to realize that for aboriginal people we have a different perspective. We have been allowed by the Creator to borrow the land from our future generations. We will never own it. Perhaps that's why communication seems to be breaking down even when this Minister is known for his ability to communicate.
To him I would say to slow down on this one, listen carefully to the aboriginal people of the Sahtu, the Deh Cho, the North
Slave and the South Slave just as carefully as you've always listened to the Inuit of Nunavut.
With that, I wish him the very best both during the fall election and upon his return to this House in the fall.
Well, Mr. Speaker, this brings me, last but not least, to my honourable colleague from Tu Nedhe, the Minister...