Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I as well as other Members feel compelled to speak to this issue because it involves all of us to the very core of our job, I think.
When this committee was first established way back in June, I originally let my name stand to be on the committee, but the spots were pretty well taken and they had alternate Members, which was okay with me. I was willing to serve on that committee if there was a need for people there. However, I felt that it was a good thing to put the committee in place because we needed a process to deal with conflict issues.
I think we need a process that is fair, that removes any doubt from the public out there that wants to know the true information. I did not think at the time that we had a process in place. I am not sure that we still have a process in place that will fairly do that but I think that it is incumbent upon us now for sure to look at a process, how we deal with it and to get a process in place that will be fair.
When the committee was given its expanded mandate, I had some serious concerns at that time as to where we were going on something that started as a very minute thing and, as one Member said, could have possibly been simply an oversight. I felt that there was no need to go ahead and bring out a full-fledged investigation into the issues, but at the same time, it also has been mentioned that we made that decision missing some very critical information.
When I look back on it now and knowing the information that I do now, I think that the committee needed to be in place. It has been mentioned by a few Members around whether it was easy or whether it was not easy. I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, that it has not been easy for me sitting outside the committee. I can imagine what it was like sitting on the committee. To where this has gone and to the areas that we have gone into, I have no regrets that I was not on the committee.
However, I have no doubt that every Member on there felt the same thing. I looked at the Members who were on the committee and I tried to visualize why they were on the committee, what they were going to look at and when they were done, would we have a fair and honest assessment of the information that was presented?
I heard yesterday in the Premier's opening remarks and in Mr. Handley's opening remarks that it is very important for this Assembly to stay the course, to not get sidetracked. Well, in view of everything, Mr. Chairman, if we stay the course, we have to meet this head on because it is smack in the middle of the road in front us and to avoid it, we have to get sidetracked.
I sit here almost embarrassed to speak on this issue. My colleague from Hay River has been drastically damaged by this. I looked across at her making her statement this morning and I know that it was not easy for her. It was not easy for her and it was not easy for me listening to it.
I think that all the issues that surround the fact that Mrs. Groenewegen had to step down as her role as Deputy Premier and now off Cabinet has been influenced by a lot of things that have happened. Who takes the blame for that and what is done about it I think is what is in front of us and has to be dealt with. She has obviously paid the price already and I commend her for stepping down and taking the high road on it. She has obviously weighed the pros and cons of what she had to do. She has admitted to making mistakes, whether those mistakes were warranted of her Cabinet position. Obviously, she weighed that and felt that was her best way out.
However, now that she has stepped down from Cabinet and taken the responsibility and paid the price, do we overlook whatever else was involved in this process?
It is extremely hard, Mr. Chairman, for me to say that the key people, who I think should have been there to advise her to not get into this situation that she got herself into, were the ones who helped her get into it. That weighs very heavily on my mind when I look at this whole issue. We have some very experienced people and I guess that is the part of the information that we did not have at one point when we were making some very serious decisions as to how we were going to deal with issues that are in front of us in this Assembly.
I sincerely hoped that when I was elected as a Member of this Assembly that we would not get into something like this. I think it has been mentioned that the 13th Assembly was tarnished with conflict of interest issues and I had hoped that this Assembly would not do that, would not get into it. Yet here we are and I think that we have to deal with them.
I sat here yesterday and listened to the recommendations the committee made. I guess my initial reaction was that this committee has gone way too far. It has gone too deep. I also had a look at the information that was presented and other information related to it.
I cannot honestly say that had I been on the committee, that I would not have put my signature to any of those things because I do feel that in every case that they had to deal with the evidence that was presented to them and do their best in judging that evidence and putting a report together.
I want to commend the committee on a very extensive report.
Obviously, one part of that report, the issue has been dealt with now. One of the recommendations we probably will not have to do much with because the honourable Member has now lost her Cabinet position over it.
To say we are not going to deal with the other ones is wrong as well. We have to look at all of them now. They are in our face. They are out in the public and I think we have to deal with them.
Mr. Chairman, I will close for now until we get into the recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.