Well, that is good, Mr. Erasmus, because ten are going to Nunavut, so you will not have to worry. Mr. Speaker, we met with the Aboriginal Summit last night, who are in the process of trying to nail down a political accord. They have given us their position on this. We asked them in the winter, when we said we were going to go with 14, would you support this? They said, yes. They continue to say they are not in favour at this time of a Boundaries Commission. Mr. Speaker, neither am I. I do not think this is an appropriate time. We can do this once division happens, once the dust settles, when two territories are up and running, once the Constitutional process, which we have invested millions in, have had a chance to deal with this issue, once self-government talks progress to the next level, which indications are they are going to do that.
It has been brought up that there are many processes already underway in the communities. This, over the course of the summer, would only be another confusing factor. I am suggesting that we take the same approach that has been suggested with the naming of the territory. Yes, it is an issue, but we will do it later, at a more appropriate time.
Mr. Speaker, it makes no sense to me at this time. We are going to be experiencing a loss of 40 percent of the territory. To me, it certainly seems possible that we can continue to function with what we have. Departments have told us as they have come before us with their budgets when we have talked about division and the impact of losing 40 percent on your volume. They are not volume sensitively. Mr. Speaker, I would have to think that as an Assembly and as a government we are volume sensitively. We are going to be getting smaller, but our MLAs and their number are going to stay the same. Very clearly, this is a political issue. There are legal implications and legal opinions, but as we have heard in this House, Yellowknife thinks they should have more seats. My colleague from Inuvik is concerned about being outnumbered by people south of the Sahtu and they want more seats. Where does this escalation stop? I think we have an obligation to the people to make wise decisions. We did make a decision on 14 and I do not think anybody's abrogating their responsibility if we say yes to a Boundaries Commission, but not now. How much government do we need?
This is a consensus government. We are supposed to be able to work together, to structure ourselves along the traditional ways to do business. Be it 14, 18, 12 or ten, we have never given it a chance. We have people that are buying into the quasi-political party approach where you have to have Cabinet and everybody else in opposition, as opposed to us working together. Which is always what I thought the intent of consensus government was. I can tell you, as well, that I do not think people will say if you had 50 MLAs here the accountability would necessarily be any better or that you would be able to control Cabinet if that is the approach you want to take. At the end of the day if you do not work together, accountability will always be an issue. I think that is a red herring. We have never given this situation a chance. We have those that want to protect the status quo, who want to inflate our central government at a time when we do not have enough money for our people, programs and services in the communities. I cannot believe that we are going to drape ourselves in this kind of rhetoric and flag-waving to say, give the people a chance because we know they want more MLAs. I do not think people want more MLAs and I think it is not the right time. We should recognize what the Aboriginal Summit has said, our partners in what will be a political accord, and let us wait. Let us see what happens and does this at the right time. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
--Applause