Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I for one believe that we do have a responsibility to the residents of the Northwest Territories and to the people of the Northwest Territories to offer good governance. Mr. Speaker, we have rules and procedures in regard to acts, legislation, policies that we have developed from time to time. This is the House responsibility of developing laws and directions and programs to be carried out on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, in this House, no one is above the law. I for one feel that we were misled. We were basically told certain things happened, which after the Auditor General's report clearly stipulates a lot of things that we assumed in the debate that we had in this House did not really happen.

Mr. Chairman, the thing that really gets me in the Auditor General's report is knowing that there were contractual agreements in place at the time of these dismissals, and those contracts were not considered in making the decision to compensate. Instead, as a government, we go out of our way to re-enact or re-establish new contracts that exceed the old contracts to the tune of some $400,000 and some $250,000. Realistically, the old contract only allowed for compensation up to $133,000. Yet we exceed that amount by doubling the compensation that the individual is required.

What really burns me in regard to what happens with this issue is the question of trust. It was clearly stated in this House when we had this debate, the Premier clearly stated that I was not involved in any way in regard to the negotiations of the contracts for the two individuals. But it clearly states from the record when a question was asked by Mr. Dent to Mr. Papineau, "Yes, we did inquire as to the justification to the maximum performance pay, taking into consideration that there were letters of reprimand on file. We were told that they were given direction to pay maximum performance pay. Further clarification was that they had done a great job. But in specific, as to the objectives that they had to meet for doing such a great job, therefore, that was the...(inaudible)...for performance."

But no where were they able to find the evaluation that was done to determine the performance pay-out. There was no evaluation.

I am moving down a little further after a question asked by Mr. Dent. Was there any indication of who provided that direction? Mr. Papineau states: "The Premier provided the direction to Ms. Snider to pay maximum performance pay-out." It is in the Hansard, which clearly states to me that the Premier was directly involved in negotiations of these contracts.

For myself, I did have trust in the Premier, but today, I have lost that trust, knowing that he stood up in this House clearly stating he was not involved in any of these negotiations. Period.

I for one find it awfully hard to sit here going through a process that we went through during the 13th Assembly. At that point, the removal of a Premier will tar every one of us in this House and we, as elected Members to this House, have a responsibility to ensure that good governance and that the rules and regulations and policy that we establish in this House is carried out to its fullest.

Lately, we have seen how Cabinet can reinvent rules to defer or move away from polices. We have heard of pulling out of contract negotiations by deleting policies that allow for economic benefits to the Northwest Territories by way of business incentive policies. We find ways of intervening $30 million contracts without going to public tender by way of negotiated contracts, which it clearly stipulates in the negotiated contract policy, that Members of the Legislative Assembly affected by a contract have to be consulted and given the opportunity to support such an initiative.

These policies are there to ensure that as a government we have communications at all levels, and that to ensure, because of being on Cabinet, that does not give you the right to override policies and procedures that we have in place in this government.

I find it awfully alarming to realize that going through compensation packages that were identified that I agree we should compensate people for contracts we have with them by way of employment contracts. For me, that contract is binding. I agree that we should have paid Ms. Sorensen and Mr. Bayly what they had coming to them, but when we see the amounts that are in the report, which totally excludes contracts that were made by the parties in regard to employment contracts, and practically tear up those contracts, rewrite a new contract to enormous amounts of dollars paid out by way of compensation that was not supposed to be received.

Yet, Mr. Chairman, we have a lot of employees in this government who are shaking their heads today, wondering what do I have to do to get a golden handshake?

This sets a bad, bad precedent. As a government who is responsible for protecting the public purse and ensuring that we have fair agreements for employees, but to go out of our way to basically give lucrative contracts to our personal friends is uncalled for.

I for one fully support the report of the Auditor General and the recommendations as put forth by committee, because for myself, as a Member of this Legislative Assembly, I have been misled in regard to what we were told in this House.

I voted to support the Premier the last round because I was under the understanding that the answers we were receiving by the staff and the Minister of Finance along with the Premier were accurate. What we find through this report and the findings of the Auditor General, we were misled. Using another word, lied to.

I for one would like to state for the record that I am offended to have been taken "to the cleaners" by a process that was one-sided, was not thorough in giving us the answers we were asking for and not giving us information relative to the case in front of us today.

With that, I support the committee report. I support the Auditor General's report and thank her for finally letting us see the light of day as we have been kept in the dark for so long.