Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about consensus government. In April, I was in Ottawa, where I proudly explained our unique governing system to MLAs and aboriginal leaders from across the country. As one of only two consensus governments in Canada, we have a political system that is distinct from the more common party politics. The absence of party structures allows each Member to vote as he or she wishes on any subject matter. Approval of any decision requires agreement by the majority of Members. This is consensus government.

When we are first elected from our constituencies, we come to the Legislature and we choose a Speaker from amongst ourselves. We also choose our Premier and six Cabinet Ministers. Members, such as myself who are not in Cabinet, are referred to as Regular Members. I would like to point out that in our Legislature, Cabinet consists of only seven of the 19 Members. Since Cabinet is a minority, the 11 Regular Members can have a big impact on many of the decisions and the direction of the government.

While I was in Ottawa, I was proud to explain our system. I even stated how effectively it worked. When I returned, I became aware that, behind closed doors, Cabinet was making decisions that excluded my riding in major plans.

The reality is that Cabinet, which is a minority, is creating strategies and documents without including all MLAs. Cabinet picks and chooses which projects it wishes to develop. Regular Members become aware of the government's agenda by listening to the radio or reading the local paper. We are not part of the process.

When we came together as a government in January 2000, one of our first tasks was to create a working agenda for our term. The result was a document called Towards a Better Tomorrow. This document that all 19 Members created is being used as a blank cheque by Cabinet -- a minority of seven Members -- to fund whatever projects they want. This was not the intention of Members or the purpose for what the document, Towards a Better Tomorrow, was created for. I think we are doing both this document and consensus government a great deal of disservice by not actively involving all Members in the decision-making process.

Mr. Speaker, I was elected as a Member of a consensus government. I am beginning to wonder when we will be practicing consensus government. If we do...