Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that I cannot function as a Member of this House if I do not have the freedom to speak. I cannot retract that, Mr. Speaker, with all due respect. That is the opinion that I had and I have to stand by it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I am going to refer to your rules of the House. Under section 25, section (c), naming of a Member:

A Member may be named by the Speaker for disregarding the authority of the Chair or for abusing the rules by persistently and wilfully obstructing the business of this House.

Ms. Lee, you are being named in the House. The Chair will ask you to withdraw from this Chamber for the balance of this day.

Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Antoine. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to inform the House that as of October 1, 2001, the Department of Transportation has introduced a new 1-800 telephone information system for the traveling public on our highway system.

-- Applause

This new telephone system gives the public access to highway and ferry reports 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unlike the outdated tape recording and answering machine service this replaces, callers have immediate access with no busy signal or waiting time. The new service extends right across Canada, providing highway and ferry information for all regions of the Northwest Territories' transportation system.

Mr. Speaker, effective with the new 2002 NorthwesTel telephone directory, the public of the Northwest Territories will see only one telephone number in their telephone directory. On the old system, people had to know to telephone the correct one of our regional telephone numbers to get the information for the highway or ferry they wanted. The new directory will be released April 1, 2002.

Mr. Speaker, I invite the Members to try the new system at 1-800-661-0750. I am sure they will find the new system is quite an improvement over the old one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Steen. Item 2, Ministers' statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Mr. Antoine. Item 2, Ministers' statements. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the tabling of the report of the Special Committee on Conflict Process has triggered a number of events that are now before this House. Mr. Speaker, all the issues have been dealt with. The one outstanding issue is the conduct of some of the senior staff in the Premier's office.

Mr. Speaker, we have all been witness to and felt the impact of all the events outside this House that have been initiated to bring a focus to this, to bring pressure to bear on the Members of this Assembly as we try to do the business of government.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to clearly point out some facts as I see them. The general running of government by the Premier and Cabinet is not the issue here for me. As I have said in other forums and I will say here, I believe that I support at least 90 percent of the work, programs and initiatives that the government has undertaken. I may not agree on all the ways that things are being done but for the most part, Mr. Speaker, it is not a question in that area. I will say that publicly here today as I have said in other forums.

What I do have an issue with is a very specific but fundamental issue of what is appropriate conduct for the most senior civil servants in the land, based on the evidence and transcripts that were heard and presented to the special committee. That is an issue that we have to deal with as a House with the Premier and Cabinet. There is time to deal with this issue and I think there is flexibility and room to move. In fact, I believe we are almost halfway there. I understand that the principal secretary has done the honourable thing and tendered his resignation.

Mr. Speaker, we are under a significant amount of pressure to respond. I think it is time for all of us to take a breath and a step back, outside of the heat of the moment and the immediacy of the rapidly unfolding events, as legislators of the Northwest Territories...

Mr. Miltenberger, your time for your Member's statement has expired.

Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays but I would just caution Members about Rule 23, section (c), persistent and needless repetition or raising matters which have been decided during the current session. The Chair is sensing that there is drifting in that direction, so I will caution Members not to go that route. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for that guidance. To conclude, Mr. Speaker, I just want to make the point that I think it is important for all of us as legislators to step back and to look at this very carefully. We have time and there is room to move. We want to deal with this issue in a positive way, close the book on this so that we can move on with the very many important issues before this Assembly and with the government. In my mind, if we do this the right way, it should be a question of resounding confidence on Wednesday. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Ootes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Legislative Assembly press release issued this morning announced that a Territorial Leadership Committee will be held on October 31, 2001, to fill a Cabinet post. Further, it says a yes or no question will be posed on our confidence in the Premier. The vote is to be by secret ballot.

My constituents should know that I do not agree with the process of conducting a secret ballot on the Premier's leadership. I strenuously object to the clear lack of transparency in it. We pay lip service to openness, to transparency and accountability. The people are not stupid. They will see through this and they will judge us harshly and rightly so.

There is no transparency in this process. None. Let us practice what we preach. If we are to have this vote, let the public have the opportunity to hear the question on Premier Kakfwi's leadership, why it needs to be tested, though I personally do not think this is the time for it. However, if it is so, then I am prepared to speak at length on this issue and so should all Members. Let it be open.

The process calls for the Premier to speak for 30 minutes then everyone votes. This is not, in my opinion, a fair process. In such a serious matter, he has 30 minutes to defend his political life.

Let all our electorates see clearly how we have come from investigating a bias complaint to a question of confidence in the Premier, against whom there is no accusation on the floor of any wrongdoing.

Let there be evidence before all residents of the Northwest Territories as to why this vote is needed at this point in time in our politics.

The people deserve to know this. Let each of us speak to this and then cast our ballots on the Premier's leadership in the open. That is transparency.

The Supreme Court Justice commented to me a while back, Mr. Speaker, his feelings of disgust that we still have leadership elections by secret vote. Poignant words from someone of the stature of the Supreme Court Justice. We owe it to the people for them to see how we...

Mr. Ootes, your time for Member's statements has ended.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to conclude his statement. Are there any nays? There are no nays, Mr. Ootes, you may conclude.

Thank you, Members. We owe it to the people for them to see how we discharge our responsibilities in this House. Let the light shine on the process. Let this Premier have the full and unrestricted time to speak, if he chooses, to his deeds. Let us have an open debate on tenure if we must and let us have an open vote on his leadership, if we must. Let posterity not have to guess at our deeds but let it judge us because we had the courage to do deeds in the open. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause

Thank you, Mr. Ootes. Item 3, Members' statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the unfortunate events that have occurred over the last couple of days and the full court press, as some would say, that is being applied to Members from outside this arena is very disappointing indeed.

Mr. Speaker, some Members here may feel that as a result of decisions of this House in the last couple of days, that this event has come to light.

Mr. Speaker, I have very serious, ongoing concerns with what has been occurring. In public, our Premier stated as early as this morning, I believe, and made some other reference -- in public -- to the backroom discussions that are going on in this Assembly and in the halls.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier is well aware of what happens in politics. He has been a Member long enough and he has taken part in that. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I would even state that the backroom goings on and shenanigans are occurring even as we speak today.

To say that does not approach Members of this House, as we have discussed, and put it on the line as to where he stands, instead goes and makes calls to other leaders of this Northwest Territories, calls in the Liberal regime to speak to other Members of this Assembly and we have another Minister of this House stand up and call for a free vote -- Mr. Speaker, I have serious concerns with what is going on here.

Through the Territorial Leadership Committee, Mr. Speaker, we have done, by tradition, voted in a way that is a matter of secret ballot. It has been tradition. Now, suddenly in this one situation, we want to turn it around, ongoing with what has been happening behind closed doors.

Mr. Speaker, I have very seriously considered that in fact, in this situation, we have the pot calling the kettle black. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. I just want to caution Members about the tone that some of the statements are heading in. The Chair does not want to be heavy-handed here, but the use of terms like backroom shenanigans is encroaching on suggesting that there is some malfeasance at work here. I want to ask Members to avoid that. If you have statements to make, which are at your choice, just avoid words like that please.

-- Interjection

Thank you. We have a point of order by the honourable Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Kakfwi.

Point of Order

Mr. Speaker, since I was the subject of the honourable Member's comments, I do not accept the tone and the terms that are used to describe what he thinks he heard outside of this Legislature. I ask him to withdraw those if he would, please.