Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Premier for setting this up. I too agree that we must all be accountable for our actions as Members of the 14th Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that I have been very accommodating. I have waited patiently for the other side of the story and I am disappointed, Mr. Speaker, that the other side of the story has not come forward. Mr. Speaker, I think Members of this Assembly, Members on this side of the floor have even provided options that could be done to try to clarify this situation. In fact, a letter was sent to the Premier dated November 14, in which we gave three options to clear up the situation.
Mr. Speaker, the Premier has continued, in my situation at least, to be evasive. I will quote, Mr. Speaker, from unedited Hansard of November 14, 2000, page 1460. In response to my question, the Honourable Stephen Kakfwi stated in one of his responses:
"I have said before that I know Members can say outrageous things. They can say things that are not based on fact. They can create legislation that does not exist and make reference to it".
Mr. Speaker, I spoke of legislation, the Access to Information and Protection Act. That is not a phantom piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker. We even quote section 23(4)(e) which refers to what kind of information we would be allowed under the Access to Information Act.
Mr. Speaker, he could have dealt with this up-front in one day, in a matter of an hour, but no. The leaders of this government have chosen to try to side step the issue, to swim in the grey areas, they say, but that has not been clear. I even took the Premier up on his offer to see the contract for myself. As of yet, I have not been granted approval to see that. How can I make my mind up or make a decision on half of the information? I was hoping that the Premier and the Cabinet would supply the other half of the information so that we could clear this up. By purposely not doing that, we have created confusion. We have created conspiracy theories and we are losing confidence, Mr. Speaker. Again, I hope that the Premier will have the opportunity and do the right thing and show that information to us. Thank you.