Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is probably one of the most difficult Member's statements I have ever had to make, and I have had to make a few tough ones during my six years in this Legislature.
Mr. Speaker, issues have come to light in the media, and will further come to light later as we consider the upcoming supplementary appropriation, which will detail the actions on the part of our Premier which will demonstrate, in my opinion, that he lacks sound judgment.
Mr. Speaker, in the fallout after the Special Committee on Conflict Process, I was faced with a moral conflict between personal loyalty to someone I cared about and public accountability for upholding a high standard of integrity as elected officials. Not certain of my motives in the confusion and wake of a very stressful time, I chose personal loyalty.
In the weeks and months subsequent to that I have had the opportunity to reassess my decision many times and still was able to rationalize my choice to support the Premier on the grounds that we needed to move forward, be positive, understanding that we are all human and sometimes we do things that show poor judgment.
Numerous times I have requested of the Premier an opportunity to sit down and fully discuss the details of what transpired around the circumstances that gave rise to the inquiry by the special committee. In a way, I guess, I hoped he had not been previously aware of them and maybe had been the victim of being kept in the dark, but he has never wanted to know.
I wanted to apologize to the people of the Northwest Territories and my colleagues in this House, as a person who puts so much on the line to stand up for transparent and accountable government in the 13th Assembly, for allowing my personal loyalty and affection to so cloud my judgment that I would want to ignore the facts of actions that were taken, which go to the very heart of the integrity of this government.
As long as those things stay hidden and unaccounted for, nothing can really be right. After receiving a vote of confidence in this House to continue on as Premier, Mr. Kakfwi has unfortunately continued to display an attitude of arrogance and disregard for the position of authority that he holds.
In light of what transpired prior to that confidence vote and what has transpired since, I feel it is incumbent on me today to stand up in this House and say that regardless of how these issues are disposed of by other Members of this House, personally I have no confidence in Stephen Kakfwi as the Premier of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.