Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I was saying, and corrected, Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of people who have come and talked to me about the concerns they have, that somehow the Premier feels that everything we do is political, the Premier seems to have very little concern that we get in this House, I believe it was a tabled document, that some decisions on moving...I have already stated and I don't want to go back debating the whole issue.
I just want to speak to the importance of government accountability, and that people out there are listening to what we are saying. We do a lot of work outside of this House. The days and hours we spend in this House are only a small portion of the work that we do as a Member. So it is very important. The people are watching us from all over the Territories. I know the seniors in Aven Court watch us. I know Mrs. Teya in Fort McPherson watches us. Mr. Punch in Trout Lake watches us. There are people watching from all over the Northwest Territories, and they wonder why, when the Members on this side are bringing up issues and trying to get information about a project transfer, getting information about why a day care in Fort Smith has to close, information as to why a day care in Lutselk'e has no facilities for the kids and they cannot get operational funding, they don't understand why the Ministers are not forthcoming in giving the kind of information that we need.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that there is a lot of work we do outside of here, in committees and in public hearings. We do a lot of work. I don't know if the public knows that most of the work we are doing here has been agreed to outside of here. There is a lot of briefing that goes on in getting prepared for this, but they don't understand. That's what I am hearing from the constituents. Why is it that when we ask questions about the Beverage Container Program, or whatever it is that we bring forward, it's such a protracted process?
For example, Mr. Speaker, I have raised a lot of issues on day care services. I know that I sound very repetitive; sometimes I sound very angry. That's only because I am asking simple questions that need to be addressed and the information is not forthcoming.
As I observe what is going on in this House, I have a great concern of the performance of some of the Ministers. Mr. Speaker, the specific Minister I have concern with -- and as a Member, I believe I have the right to say -- is I used to be one of the biggest fans of the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Charles Dent. I used to think that it was his greatest strength that his approach to files is to study them, and to get to the bottom of things, and think about it. Lately, I am not sure if that's a strength of his. In fact, I am not sure if I do have as much confidence in his ability to be leading these files as I used to.
Mr. Speaker, when he was Minister of Justice, we had protracted debate in this House about what was happening in Justice. At that time, a lot of members in my constituency came and said he should resign over what's going on in the jails. I said no, he's a very thoughtful person. He likes to review his files, and he's a hard-working Member, and I know he is. We went through those justice files. Lately he's been asked questions on WCB. He says he has no control over WCB. All of his answers that he's giving in this House are more suited to an administrator of a program, rather than a Minister. I really have a problem with that, Mr. Speaker.
I used to think this was the advice he was getting from his staff. Looking at his performance in Justice and the WCB file, and recently we had a situation where I had someone who was completely homeless in my office, and they went to the ECE office and they were not able to get housing, even though they qualified for income support and they could get market rent. I went over to his office, these people are sitting in my office, and I am told by the staff we know about the file, I will call you, wait for me. You can't jump the queue. You have to wait like everybody else. I thought it was just a bad day at the office. People in his office maybe don't understand exactly what his roles are.