Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not know what to say. I am absolutely astounded as to what I am hearing in this House. Justification of two wrongs make a right. Let's continue. We have done wrong. We recognize that, but let's continue and it will be right. We will make it right. We will put another rule on the floor for the government to follow.

We seem to have forgotten that it is those rules that we are not following. I must say that Mr. Braden's attempts at being a philosopher are pretty good, laying down all the possibilities of why we should or should not do something.

Mr. Chairman, we have a responsibility as Members of the 14th Legislative Assembly to follow our own rules. It is amazing that somebody would stay up and say, let's not call into question the integrity and authority of the Premier, but hey let's all fall on our swords and go down that path together. Well if the will is not in this House to act on its own laws then I think we have no other possible duty but to resign our positions as the 14th Assembly and go immediately out to the polls because we have shown that we have no credibility. We cannot manage our own government. We are not following our own rules, but we have done it in a way that is peaceful. We will peacefully go about doing our activities, not following the rules we have set out before us. The rules we questioned if they were being followed when we asked the Auditor General to do her report.

But I hear justification from Members of this Assembly to say, whoa now is not the time, and do not be worried I am not interested in running for the premiership. I will wait for the appropriate time, maybe after re-election. So do not be nervous there. What I am here for is accountability, something I have stood up and talked about in this House time and time again. This is not a new issue, Mr. Chairman, we have Members saying give us more time. We need to think about this. We need to delve into it and find out what is for real or not.

Have we forgotten why this audit was asked for? It was because we were not given the information in this House. In this House we are also supposed to maintain integrity standing tall, but what I have seen embarrasses me. It embarrasses me to call myself a Member of the 14th Assembly. How quick we are to forget what oaths we took.

Tell me what is really happening down in Ottawa that we need to maintain today. The NUHRD strategy, $230 million. The Premier stood up in this House and said $3.9 million down payment hallelujah. We looked at the other strategy for another $130 million and what were we told we were going to get from that -- maybe $20 million and we have to match the funding. We have oil companies writing to us now to tell us that if our stance as a government on Kyoto does not change or if we are not going to try to look at something else, that will affect development in the Northwest Territories. Tell me what we have here people. We have a growing debt. The rosy glasses that we wore when we first came into this Assembly have started turning darker.

I know that Members have made their positions clear and there are a number of Members -- and I must say that I will call them honourable Members because they have said in speaking to the report how they agree with it and its findings and the recommendations that the committee has made. Personal agendas aside, we have an oath. We have to follow the laws that we set for ourselves. How can we expect that our staff and the people of the Northwest Territories will follow the laws we set if we cannot even stand up and say that we are following our own rules?

Mr. Chairman, let me say just to remind some of the Members here that when we came in here and when we took that oath we stated that: "I will not act nor condone others in acting in ways which exploit, slander or discriminate against others. I will not, nor condone others, in acting in ways which are dishonest. or which exploit positions of privilege for personal gain."

Mr. Chairman, this report states that we did not follow the rules. In as much as the Premier wants to state that he had no involvement in this, we can look at records, on the record, where staff of the Auditor General stated that Mr. Kakfwi directed his staff to give maximum benefits to the staff that were released. We thought they were released, but we find out now that they will be fully employed and qualify for all benefits until January 2004, beyond our mandate. Is that good government? Is that credibility? Those of you who are worried about going to meetings and other places and our credibility by questioning ourselves in this manner, I question the credibility we would have if we let this slide, if we accept the actions of what happened.

Each and every one of us will have to account for our work here. We do it every time we go to the polls. Maybe we should do it a little earlier since nobody here seems to want to take up the fact that we have to act within our own laws. Where is your credibility? Where is our dignity? We pray in this House every day for the dignity and aspirations of those whom we serve. Where is that now? It seems to me like we are pushing for self preservation at all costs.

These are sharp words, Mr. Chairman, words I was not prepared to say today, but I must say now.