Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am in support of the committee recommendations and the committee report. Mr. Chairman, this is not something new we are dealing with here. We have debated this issue in the House on more than one occasion. It started about this time last year. Questions were asked of Mr. Kakfwi in the House and the answers came back. The answers were not satisfactory. As a result, the Auditor General was involved. Her findings are clear and factual.
Mr. Chairman, the credibility of this government is shaking at the core. According to the Auditor General employment contracts and policies were circumvented, and a strong indication through factual findings is that the employment contracts that were held by both Mr. Bayly and Ms. Sorensen were there to protect the government and employee.
Clearly the employment contract of Ms. Sorensen stated that she would receive so many dollars based on her years of service. Whatever she got she has to take and she has to leave within a certain amount of time. That employment contract was totally ignored.
A termination agreement was negotiated where she was substantially overpaid through manoeuvring such as extending her employment contract so that she could qualify for maximum benefits, maximum. According to the Auditor General, a quarter of a million dollars that she should not have received from this government, she got.
If we refute paying her, Mr. Chairman, she could go and get a lawyer to protect her interests, paid by this government. In her employment contract that clause was not there. This is an unprecedented clause. We have an employment contract that protected the interests of this government and the people of the Northwest Territories, yet that contract was thrown out and replaced with a termination agreement that forced this government to pay her more money than she deserved. Yet if we refute that, we have to pay her legal fees.
Clearly there is a conflict of interest here. The Premier is there to represent the people of the Northwest Territories and to represent this House. Yet he chose to ignore a contract that protected the people of the Northwest Territories, and protected the government and this House, by agreeing to a different contract that put the people of the Northwest Territories, the Government of the Northwest Territories and this House in harm's way.
I have questioned many times the impartiality of the Premier. This just puts another nail in the coffin of my belief there, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Braden once said in this House that you cannot fix the problem with the same thinking that created the problem. A quote from Einstein, a very smart man.
Mr. Chairman, the argument used that we need Mr. Kakfwi for the continuation and stability, I do not think that is the case. I think if we allow this government to continue the way it is, knowing that this kind of fiasco happens on too many occasions, the credibility of this government will be shaken so that nobody will listen to any request from the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Can we trust somebody that would rather give what appears to be a friend protection and extra money that was not deserved, to go down to Ottawa on our behalf and ask for devolution dollars and devolution of management responsibility for programs and services? I do not think that that person would be received very well by the federal government, whose own agency... (the other Joe's office which is a very credible office).. clearly stated that rules were ignored and existing employment contracts were not respected.
Mr. Chairman, there are a lot of people who are qualified to lead this government, this House and out there. If the argument used is that we need the Premier because of his experience, I believe there are other people in this House that could do that job. We have to bring credibility back here to this government. It is an ethical thing. We cannot sit here and slap a person on the wrist when they have broken rules and procedures.
When I sit here and I am thinking about this, I am reminded of an elderly couple in Lutselk'e who were having an addition being put on their house, but the addition was so small that the construction had to be stopped. Because the scope of work had changed, the contractor wanted more money. They put up plastic to cover the outside of the house because they were squabbling over what seemed like a very small amount of dollars compared to the $250,000 that was given outright to an individual.
Where are our priorities here, Mr. Chairman? This elderly couple sat in that house all summer and into the fall with power bills going through the roof because they were keeping the heat up because there was very good ventilation resulting from the construction of the addition. Yet the Housing Corporation was squabbling with a contractor over what seemed like a $60,000 thing, Mr. Chairman, and this couple had to suffer. Those are my constituents. There are many many people in the Northwest Territories that need programs and services from this government and we cannot deliver because we simply do not have the financial resources.
We know we are going to see a $104 million deficit. No wonder, Mr. Chairman. We are giving away money that is unjustified and government practices that are not prudent. We cannot lead by that kind of an example. We have to bring credibility back to this House and we have to take care of the loose ends that allowed this to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is another time. We cannot allow the Premier to continue with these kinds of practices. The foundation of this government has been shaken to its core. The highest member of this government has shaken that credibility core.
How many civil servants, how many government employees can expect to get that kind of severance package? Our employees are asking, what do I have to do to get those kinds of dollars? We have to bring credibility back to this House, Mr. Chairman, and I support this report and its recommendations wholeheartedly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.