Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I too, before I get into the motion, would like to comment on the motion itself. It is pretty amazing that a motion of confidence comes from the other side of the House. If anything, it should have come from this side of the House so that you can show if there was confidence. To have the motion come from the opposite side of the House and allow us due process, in which we should have had the ability to determine that from this side of the House. We are the ones who evaluate the conduct of Cabinet, the Premier. It should have come from this side of the House, but in this case, it has not.

I have some questions about that in regard to the whole process. Everyone at that side of the House was elected through a process. The process was secret ballot, not knowing who was for or against you. So those people who ran in that particular case and lost had no idea who might have said they supported you on one hand and voted against you on the other.

Yet here you are today, every one of you on that side of the House, through your motion, has pulled a 180 degree turn on exactly where you sit on that side of the House.

I think that for this to come from that side of the House is not fair for the Members on this side of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I have had a chance to poll my riding, talk to my leaders and talk to former leaders in my region. I also gave the benefit of the doubt to the Premier. On Friday, I met with the Premier. I put the cards on the table with regard to the way I see it and some of the moves that he has to take to build the trust for myself, to make me realize that there is something going on in this government and it will be cleared up.

Mr. Speaker, it is awfully hard to sit through the 13th Assembly and now to come to the 14th Assembly and to end up jumping back on this roller-coaster ride called the conflict process because of what has occurred here in the last number of months.

For me, the whole process that this has pointed to is good government and ensuring that we restore the integrity of the office of the Premier and this government. As we can see, we are here again today because we have not been able to do that.

So it was because of that I met with the Premier on Friday evening. I made it clear to the Premier of the Northwest Territories that the problem that I had was where top officials of the Government of the Northwest Territories had to be dealt with. It involved the wrongdoing that has taken place regarding the unauthorized taping and also the participation in the telephone conversations, which should have been handled in a better way.

Mr. Speaker, we are all here to do the best for the people of the Northwest Territories and to ensure that we build that trust of the people of the Northwest Territories, to have good government, to keep this government accountable and to make sure that the people out there realize that the actions we take in here and we take within this building as government is seen out there as being on the same level of the law that they have to operate under.

No one in this government or in these offices should be above the law.

I for one, Mr. Speaker, have taken the time to give the Premier an opportunity to get the information that I requested, to look at the policies and procedures within this government, to put in formal action that there will be a protocol agreement, that they will seriously look at the ministerial handbook to ensure it is in writing, it is in black and white and that actions are being done so that this never happens again, so we are not here to go through this process again.

Mr. Speaker, I have received the information that I requested. The Premier has taken action. I believe other actions will be coming in the near future. I for one feel that we have to ensure that we continue to make these improvements to how we govern, ensuring the people who work for this government understand that there are rules and we have to follow them. We cannot find ourselves back here in another number of months, or the 15th Assembly, going through the same thing we have gone through in the last two Assemblies.

I think it is time that we ensure that we have a system in place. We have to look at the whole conflict process that we have in place. It is definitely an ineffective cost to this government and to the way we do it, where we are totally destroying lives, making innuendoes and hurting people who do not have an opportunity to really find a way to have the ability to have due process.

I for one feel that as a government, we have to somehow implement -- I do not know if we want to call it a watchdog or have an agency within this government that ensures that the Minister, the departments, the government agencies are following the protocols and the rules we establish in this House and it is enforced and they do have some teeth. If we find out that someone has breached a specific section of the protocols or the policies within this government, that we are able to react to it sooner than having to wait eight months and we end up in the situation where we are back in this House having the same debate and having the same disputes.

I will make it clear here today that I do support the Premier. I find the Premier in the situation of actions of others, in which he was also kept in the light -- or the dark, I should say, in this case. We have to find a mechanism that we do get back down to business. We do have to get on with the business at hand. That is the message I heard loud and clear from my constituents, the leaders in my riding and the Inuvialuit people. That we do have so much going for us and we cannot lose track at this important time. I think for myself and for the aboriginal initiatives that are out there, because of what has happened with self-government, the Intergovernmental Forum, we are talking about finally being recognized on the national front on where we are going with revenue sharing.

I think as a government, we have to somehow find ways of avoiding this type of a process that is time-consuming, is played out in the media, and at the end of it all, everyone in this room, everyone in the gallery and the whole Northwest Territories is affected, either directly or indirectly because of what has happened in this government.

For myself, having gone through the 13th Assembly, we had some good leaders. We had some tough decisions. We made some good decisions, but the public out there does not look at the good decisions. They look at the 13th Assembly as a public inquiry and that is not what good government is about. Here we are again because of a similar situation.

I for one feel we have to change the way we do things and find a system that is effective, that reacts to the actions sooner rather than having to go through this process for eight months. That you have the regime in place that catches these things before it comes to this point. That action is taken immediately whenever any intervention or violation is being done.

Mr. Speaker, getting back to the point at hand in regard to the process of the motion, I for one again feel that we do have to have a process in regard to this motion, like I mentioned earlier. The motion should have come from this side of the House to state exactly where we stand. We agreed to a process through Caucus to allow for some review to take place where we allow the Premier to make a public statement for half an hour and tell us exactly what he has done in the action taken to ensure the public is made aware and the public trust is reinstated by certain actions.

The Premier has taken those actions in my eyes. He has made sure there is now a strict administrative policy and procedure in place, which I have here in my hand, and that the actions on where we go from here are again in the hands of all Members in this House. We are the ones who can assure the public of that trust. We have been given that trust to preserve and protect and ensure we enhance it through what we do here.

What we do as a government reflects on who we are as a people. I think it is important to have good government. We must ensure that we have input from the people. I feel we do have to take the time to really look over what has happened here, to really look at exactly how these decisions made within the last week have affected everyone. Statements in this House have affected individuals on both sides of the House.

We can say we are one big happy family and leave here and say, "Oh well, it is over," but it is never over. The only time it will ever be over is when we do not have these types of situations. We have to ensure there are mechanisms that allow us to say these situations will never happen. But they happen. All we can do as individuals and Members of this Legislature is ensure we have good policies, good procedures and good enforcement of those policies and procedures to ensure they do not happen. When they do happen, we react to it quickly and also sincerely to allow due process.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting the Premier on this. I think it is time for us as a government to get back to business. We have too many big-ticket items out there. I believe that we have to do the right thing here; implement these policies and procedures and let us get on with it. Thank you.

-- Applause