Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have heard the discussion on this so far, every day as the dynamics change on this, we hear new things, we are subject to new influences, our perspectives can also change. I appreciated our decision on Friday to take the weekend and give this really serious consideration, but even more than that, Mr. Chairman, it gave me the chance to talk to constituents, talk to other leaders here in Yellowknife and also in other parts of the Territories and even in other parts of Canada who are deeply concerned and paying attention to the issue that is before us.
I have reflected in my report, in my remarks on Friday, that this indeed was a difficult compromise for me to make. That of course is the position that I will not endorse the committee's recommendation asking for the Premier to resign. I do not feel that that is the right thing for the Northwest Territories at this time.
On the merits of the issue itself, it would certainly seem to be the only logical conclusion, but it goes far beyond simply removing a serving Premier, It is an indictment against the ability that this Assembly has to take an issue on and settle it in a reasonable fashion and get on with our work. That is why I am urging that Members will continue to want to live out the term of this 14th Assembly and live out the contract that I think we all made with our supporters, with the voters in our constituencies when they said, get in there, go to work for four years and do the very best you can.
A question that I posed, Mr. Chairman, to people over the weekend was whether not only on this particular issue but on a number of other points that have been difficult and contentious in this Assembly over our three years, has our effectiveness, our integrity, been that badly damaged, tainted, stained that there is indeed nothing really left for us to do and cash this one in and go to the polls a year ahead of our commitment?
I did not get a lot more clarity on that, Mr. Chairman. It seems that a number of people are on as thin an edge as I am in making my choice. They are really seeming to appreciate the fine dilemma that we are in. How serious the nature of the Premier's involvement in these contracts and yet the consequences of taking him out. I cannot say that I got a lot of new support or a lot of new criticism from where I was originally, but I think I can stay on fairly safe ground by saying there is certainly some appetite out there to see Mr. Kakfwi removed. There is not enough to make that a really definite choice for me. There is even less appetite or interest, Mr. Chairman, in closing out this whole government.
As I say, you know, when I got elected, when I accepted the support of the people of Great Slave I felt it was a contract to go in there and do the work. I found out just as recently as this afternoon that we are facing potentially $100 million deficit and I think I would really be breaking faith with my constituents if I said, "Oh well, yeah, we screwed up big time in a couple of areas and gee, I am going to have to walk away from this one." I was here for three years and I think enjoyed some of the benefit and the spin-off of this economic windfall that we have had, but now there is some bad news in front of us and I am not ready to run away from that. I want this coming year, Mr. Chairman, to do my best and make a difference and turn that around.
I have tried to, I guess, take some measure of what it is that is causing this Assembly to have so much difficulty. In some part, Mr. Chairman, I think we need to look at the processes and the relationships and the methodologies that we have at work between the various parts of our Assembly, between Cabinet, between our standing and our special committees, in Caucus, the various tools that we have at our disposal.
Mr. Delorey, in I think, one of the better addresses, if not the best one that I have heard him give this Assembly this afternoon, challenged the notion of, do we even have consensus? It is something where I am on his side. I do not really know what we have in this Assembly.
The best way that I have been able to explain it to people who say, well how does your government work up there; is to say that well, the best example that I can give that you might understand is that we are a perpetual minority government. How can we really expect that to be sustainable, where every issue that comes up, every vote, is in effect a confidence situation and may see the fall or the serious injury done to a government depending on any given issue? How can that be sustained? What we have done, I think, perhaps we and some of our predecessors in other Assemblies, we have engineered out of our communication and our ability to work with each other. We have taken out the collaborative things that we need and the process to be able to resolve issues.
I have been told by Members who served in previous Assemblies, for instance, that a lot of things used to be hammered out in Caucus whereas now we are trying to do it in other ways. In effect, what we have here, Mr. Chairman, is a bi-partisan system that is adversarial and does not promote getting together and exchanging views on what the issues are. We essentially have only a reactive system here, not much different than any you would see in other provinces or in the federal government. It is certainly not consensus.
One of the reasons I ran to see if I could get elected was because I felt that the consensus system was failing us. I have learned since then that we have a duty and a responsibility to be proactive and to change and to reform the ways we manage and the way we handle consensus. That is how we are going to change this, to fix this, to make a difference. The Premier has said today more clearly than before that he and Cabinet want to do that. Can we or will we on this side take it up? Well we are going to have at least one more chance to take that debate up when Mr. Roland's motion comes forward.
I look forward tot hat debate. I think we are going to be able to steer around it, Mr. Chairman, and I am looking forward to the next year to really make a difference because I think now we can. Thank you.