Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My apologies, Mr. Speaker. We came into this House and we all agreed to a document and basic principal that we would work together for the benefit of the people of the Northwest Territories. I believe that it is our job to make sure that the conduct of this House -- not conduct, I am sorry, but the business that goes on this House is in the interest in meeting the needs of the people in that we look after the economic development and resource development and economic future of this Territory. I do believe that is what the constituents of Range Lake expect me to do.

What I need to tell them is that I am compelled to take the opportunity of replying to the opening address to tell them that there are issues happening in this House that are affecting the campaign promise I made to work towards good government and responsible government.

Everyone knows that we operate under what is known as consensus government. I really do believe that as long as there is a serious question here all the time about who should be governing us or who should be the leader or who should be the Minister, without cause or having a public debate about it, then we will fester and we are not meeting the needs of the people.

I know that I am not going to be meeting the needs of my constituents in Range Lake if I am having to spend my time here as an MLA constantly having to defend myself and defend the interests of the people, rather than taking care of the issues of the day.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that it really goes to the heart of our political and economic future that if the affairs of this House are so distracted that we are not able to look at the important issues, such as the social agenda or how to revitalize our health system, or any other agenda items that the Premier has stated in his sessional statements way back in March and two days ago, if we are not able to consider any other obligations that were laid out in the Minister's statement because we are constantly in the back room talking about whether or not we have confidence in the job that is being done by the Ministers.

Mr. Speaker, I think we are well aware that consensus government works in a way that sometimes this government looks like it is a minority government. I would actually say that it is worse than a minority government because at any given time, the government can never know whether it has the support of enough Members to do its job.

For those who are watching us from afar, whether they be multi-national corporations that are coming here to invest, whether it is oil and gas companies or diamond companies, whether it be federal Ministers or the Prime Minister, they cannot figure out from one day to the next who is governing this Territory as long as there is this question every month, every six months, every year as to the legitimacy of this government.

I do not believe that I could do my job as the MLA for Range Lake and I cannot do my job to help the government meet the agenda as stated in the sessional statement unless we put this to bed. That people, that Members here, should be compelled to get up and speak about where they stand on these issues and be judged about it.

Mr. Speaker, I just find it really imperative that we understand that there are 19 of us here who have access to this Hall. We have to be very careful about what we do in this House. I feel very terrible that we have, in the process of doing what we were doing in terms of looking at the allegation of bias against the Conflict Commissioner and discussing things around this House, managed to destroy careers. I do not think it is responsible.

I do not think that the people of Range Lake or anywhere in this Territory should accept that the 19 Members they have elected to come to this House to serve them and serve their social and economic needs, to look after their educational budget, to look after their health budget, that we are using this forum to destroy people's reputations. I have to ask myself to be a good legislator, how do they get a chance to answer for themselves?