Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find it awfully embarrassing to have to be here again in the 14th Assembly after having gone through a similar process with the 13th Assembly. I find it awfully embarrassing as a Member of this House that it had to come to this point, where we are having to deal with it in this manner. This could have been cleaned up a long time ago. We could have avoided all the embarrassment to each and every one of us. This will be left as a legacy to the 14th Assembly as it was to the Members of the 13th Assembly.

I for one feel that regardless of who said what, how the process came out, the fundamental point here is the public trust. The public has a right to trust this government to the point that if someone makes a phone call and they are being heard on the other side through an intercom system, that they are not being recorded. If they are, that someone should have put them on notice that it was taking place.

I think for myself as a Member, I know I put a lot of calls to different Ministers' offices wondering if those conversations had been recorded. We hear of a particular instance in U.S. history of a President being put out of office because of a thing called Watergate. In that case, something to a similar effect of phone calls being bugged and what not. We cannot take it lightly that this is a one-time incident or that this is the end of it.

For a senior office of this government, where this phone call took place, again, gives me grave concerns to exactly how high up this ladder this process went.

I feel sorry for all the parties involved in this. Everyone here has been affected, not only those individuals. The people of the Northwest Territories have been affected by what the outcome of this is or is going to be.

I think it is important to realize that when the public trust is no longer either within us or within Members of this House or within this government, where we see these types of activities being played out on television through the media and that for us to try to deal with what is best for the public, what is best for the Northwest Territories, and have to be slammed with something like this, I for one feel that something has to happen. Something has to change so that the public is assured that it will not happen again and there have to be mechanisms in place that those people who were involved are dealt with.

I for one feel that we have to somehow try to rebuild that public trust, which I feel right now is not there. I think through the parties and all the people involved that we have to feel in some ways sorry that it got to this point. From the Conflict of Interest Commissioner who thought she was doing her job, who was being blamed for a lot of things that were outside of her realm, or was the concern of individuals. For her to have been recorded the way she was by senior officials of this government and then to be used as a scapegoat through this process, to focus the blame on that individual -- as far as I see it, she should not take the brunt of this blame.

She was set up for personal gain by an individual to get information and use it against her. For me, that is as close to being slanderous as slanderous can be.

When you use something against another individual, knowing that is power because you have her on a tape recorder, saying, "Well, look here. I have something on you." That is not a way to run a government.

If those are the tactics that are being used by this government, we definitely have a problem within the system. I for one feel that we have to do more than just ream out a few individuals but establish some clear rules and clear policies within this government that will make it a policy, not only within this government, but make it a rule that no recordings whatsoever take place in any way, shape or form during the business of this government, regardless of whether it is out of a particular Minister's office or if it is a private conversation in the boardroom.

I feel that is where we have to focus. We cannot blame it on the committee for doing their work. We cannot blame it on the fact that we were not involved or we did not like the process. Everyone had an opportunity to take part in this process. It was visible. People saw it on television. People were able to hear it through the radio. The media was all over it. We as Members in this House are now having a chance here to respond to the report of the committee, which we as a Legislature established in this House with the particular rules and mandate for them to go out and do a particular job.

At this time, I would like to congratulate the committee for doing the job they did do. It was tough and it was time-consuming. For us to sit over here and say, "Well, they did not take enough time or basically they did not put the energy into it." As we all know, the schedule of Members of this House, it is hectic enough just to try to figure out where you are going to be next week, never mind trying to figure out where you were last week.

I think for myself, I am again totally appalled that we have had to come to this point but I for one feel that we have to do something to build that public trust and allow the people of the Northwest Territories to feel that they can trust this government. They can trust the bureaucracy to ensure they are out there looking and ensuring that they are there for the public of the Northwest Territories and not for their own individual endeavours.

I for one feel that we as a government have to not only consider the recommendations in this report but also review existing policies and guidelines that we have to ensure that any means of communication is being recorded and that we seriously look at the processes that are being conducted in regard to how communications are being handled between the public, the offices of this government, individuals of other governments, and Ministers and their officials are monitored.

I think this experience shows us that we are not above the law. We are not there to do things on the basis that we think we have the power or we can do it because we feel that we are on top of the mountain. We are here because the public put us here. We are here to represent the interests of the public, to protect the public against the government, not the other way around. We are protecting the public's interest by saying, "We know what is best for you. Trust us." I think that is the thing that is lacking here, is trust.

I feel that we have to take the time and build the trust and make sure we establish those rules so that we do not see this happen again in this government or in any future government that is in place, and it has to come from the Premier's office, since that is where presently everything is being pointed at right now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.