Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I too have some concerns in response to the Premier in regard to this motion. I for one feel that the allegations are serious. This did not take place in a coffee shop or secretary's office. This took place in the highest office of this government and in the Northwest Territories. It took place in the Premier's office.
This recording of a statutory officer of this Legislature should not have happened, but it did happen. For no action to be taken for almost three months, and for us to be told in this House that a phone call conversation took place in March and finding out through the process that it was two recordings, not just one. What I am upset about is for us to realize that senior officials of this government, in particular the principal secretary, who is a lawyer, who has a long career in law in the Northwest Territories, knowing the question of lawyer-client privilege and the question of confidentiality was breached. For him to sit there and knowingly take part, regardless of whether he was holding the tape recorder or not, and not take action to uphold the law of this land and uphold the law of the protection of this House, and for it to take as long as it has to where we are now at this point...
It took three months before the Premier was made aware of it or it was even discussed in the context of what we are discussing here today. But if no action is taken, basically, from what I am hearing from the Premier, is he is condoning the action that has taken place. I for one feel that we have to do more to ensure that there are going to be stringent rules and what not in place in regard to how conversations will be monitored and having a process so that whoever is on the other side of the line is made aware that they are being recorded.
I think for this to have taken place in the Premier's office is a serious enough matter that action has to be taken.
I for one feel that -- no offence to Mr. Bayly, I have a lot of respect for Mr. Bayly -- but I also thought that through his experience in law, that he would have been up front and made the Commissioner aware of the people who were in the room and that the conversation was being recorded. That did not happen.
With regard to Ms. Sorensen, who again is another senior official in this government, she also should have taken action on this matter as the chief of staff to make sure that these actions would not have been condoned or that immediate action should have been taken and not for us to have to come to this point and dealing with this motion.
I feel that this motion has to have some meaning. Action has to be taken. Knowing Mr. Bayly submitted his resignation in regard to this matter tells me that he realized that he did make a mistake.
I think that because of that, something has to be done to ensure that public trust is rebuilt, that we take the time to ensure that actions are taken, and meaningful action so that we can show the public that things have been done, that there are rules in place and we are tightening up in regard to the procedures that happen with regard to how people will be -- conversations will be recorded and individuals made aware of it. In those cases that there has to be procedures in place and also how we handle these types of incidents, that hopefully will not happen again, but if they do, there has to be a clear, spelled out process so that we know that action will be taken, immediate action will be taken, and that rules are spelled out clearly so that everybody in the government knows that this is a no-no and that you will be dealt with severely and seriously in the context of your job or jobs.
I think that with the motion that is in front of us and the recommendations in the report, it is clear. I think that it is important that we establish a time frame in this motion to state that the Premier does report back to this House in a specific time frame so that we can see exactly what action has been taken and if no action is being taken, how do we deal with it?
I think this motion has to be meaningful. Something has to be done and we do have to keep this government accountable and also assure the public that we are doing something to ensure this never happens again.