Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, observing the Minister's performance in this House, the way he's been answering questions, and the way he says that he is responsible for this day care file, for example, and he gets a budget at the beginning of the year and there is nothing he can do and that's the way it is, he stated in this House that he never even tried to seek extraordinary funding from FMBS. His responses are so non-responsive and non-caring. It's not just on this file, but in so many other things I have experienced with this Minister. It's leading me to lose complete confidence in his ability to carry on this portfolio.
Mr. Speaker, there have been lots of people who have sent me e-mails about the questions and answers going on about the day care program. One of the women who e-mailed me yesterday said I am just thinking about the women in Fort Smith who are encouraged by the government to upgrade themselves and take their courses. A lot of them are single mothers, and it's very difficult for anybody to go to school, and pick up where their normal life is, and trying to upgrade their education. If they have a child along, childcare issues are very serious. This woman said to me, and she's a leader in the community, and these women are feeling very betrayed that the government will encourage them to take courses, but, somehow, they seem not willing to look into a problem.
I have never indicated in this House that any centre should be just bailed out for no reason at all. I am told that between this group and the Minister, there have been hundreds of e-mails, and letters, and communications. As I've stated, on many occasions, it's just unbelievable to me how two parties could communicate that much, in writing and in words, and have such a gap in understanding about where the problems are. I feel sympathetic to that.
I know that the Member for Hay River South has suggested maybe we should have women on the other side of the Cabinet. But, I guess, that would be a different perspective. I think we just need a sympathetic heart. Mr. Speaker, I know a thing or two about life in a household led by a single mother. Everybody here knows that I was brought up by a single mother. My mother worked really hard to bring me and my sister up. I always thought a lot of people really don't care enough. The government programs don't care, and I always promised myself that if I ever -- and I did, I put myself through school, and I tried to make it in the world -- and I promised myself that if I ever got in a position where I had any kind of influence and say on how the government treats its most vulnerable people, that I will do my best to bring fairness and some voice to these people.
I am telling you, I don't know what the reasons are. Maybe the Minister, and people in the know, would reveal this. On the basis of what I'm hearing in the House, I don't really know why it is so important that this day care centre in Fort Smith has to close on Friday. But from where I'm sitting, and what the people are hearing, this government is just sounding like...You know, they could do so much more, with a little more heart.
Mr. Speaker, this issue doesn't just apply to day care funding. Minister Dent spoke, at length, that he was planning on improving the day care program, if he could get money from the federal government. There are two common themes that play in this House, and one is Yellowknife has everything, and I guess there is some truth in that. Equity and equitable distribution of wealth is always a good political topic. Although I don't think Yellowknife has everything, and even if you have a lot of things, you have other issues that you need to contend with. But another, most popular, pastime in this House, is blaming the federal government when we don't get our way.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that as a creature of federal statute, as we are, as the NWT Legislature, and no matter how well evolved we are, and how much we have taking responsibilities in practice, we really are a creature of federal legislation. So it is important, in the many files that we have, that we get good funding out of that. What really bothers me is, while the Ministers on that side are willing to take up credit for any cent, any additional $10, any million we get from the federal government, but when they don't get it, they're not willing to share the blame for not being able to succeed in that. That has been one of my frustrations in listening to Minister Dent going on and on about the fact that he couldn't do much about the day care program, because he couldn't win there.
Mr. Speaker, I believe political leadership is about taking responsibility and accounting for actions. We don't go to battles, like kings and queens did with swords, but we do go to meetings, and we spend lots of time making phone calls. We could go to one thousand meetings and not achieve a deal. Mr. Dent, I understand, has been making phone calls, and meeting with other people, trying to get a deal, but at the end of the day, we have to be judged by what we achieve. The fact that you do not achieve, and you do not get a deal from the federal government, cannot be used as an excuse for not being able to help with what's going on in the North.
Mr. Speaker, I have been passed a note by somebody, and I think it's somebody in the public, I don't know who it is.
But the Minister indicated earlier about how much they have done for this day care. The logical question is, if you've done so much to help out with this day care centre, why are you so anxious to see that it finishes?
Mr. Speaker, the points that I really needed to make at this juncture, and the Premier stated in his session statement that we are in our two-year stop, and it is, usually, a time when a Legislature looks into itself about what we are accomplishing. The more I sit in the House -- and I was listening to what has been going on in the last few days -- I realize that it's getting so much more difficult to have the government consent to some of the smallest changes that you would think elected officials should be able to ask for.
Mr. Speaker, the next item I want to talk about...There are about two or three items I was going to talk about, but I was only planning on speaking for about half-an-hour, so I'm going to finish my statement by saying I would like to send warm greetings to the elders in Aven Court, who I know are watching us all the time. I've mentioned them earlier, and I've mentioned some of the people in the communities.
I would like to put this government on notice, that in my six years that I've been here, I have never asked any Minister to resign, and I don't take it lightly when I tell a Minister that I have lost confidence in him. I feel very strongly about this Minister, and I mean what I say, and I'm going to continue to be hard on this Minister. I'm going to ask, and I have to see, that he has some heart, and that he doesn't just...It's just unbelievable how he sees a Minister's role as something where he just has no flexibility, no willingness to reconsider, no consideration to give any new information, a deserved look, no response to any of the e-mails or any of the public input, and that is just really sad to say. I know that this government is not going to do anything about that day care centre. It's a very sad day for the Territories and for the day care centre in Fort Smith. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause