Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My reply this morning is perhaps not so much related to the actual budget documents before us, but to the process by which our Assembly puts together the business plans and the budget documents.
Mr. Speaker, we are proud in the Northwest Territories of our consensus system of government. We hold it up as something that is different, is suited to us, has deep roots in the traditions and the cultures of the First Nations of the North and that it is something that we want to protect and keep.
But you know this isn't done easily or just at the drop of a hat. It takes work to keep a consensus government system going. Part of the exercise that we go through here, is on one hand we think that we are one of the most open and transparent and accessible kinds of government in Canada and, at a couple of levels, that is certainly true, Mr. Speaker.
Almost all of the NWT is going to see an MLA or a Minister, I don't know about daily, but probably weekly or at least monthly you are going to see one of us in your community or at some kind of event, in the lineup at the grocery store, in the stands at the hockey rink or curling arena, and that certainly does make us accessible and available to talk about what is on people's minds. I enjoy that part of the job very much, Mr. Speaker.
But I think there are some anomalies in here and this is where I am going to come back to the budget process. We have a very open stream of information and communication channels, Mr. Speaker, between Regular Members, who sit on the committees that review the bills, the plans and all that kind of stuff. We have a very open channel and a tradition in this Assembly of keeping those channels open.
Where we are distinctly different from Parliament or all the other provinces, except for Nunavut, Mr. Speaker, is that the government is obliged by this practice, by this tradition of ours to inform Regular Members of significant legislative initiatives, the budget being one of them. Our process is great at this level, but where I am always intrigued, Mr. Speaker, is in wondering how much better,
how much stronger would our system of government be -- especially at the budget and business plan setting level -- if we were to broaden our horizon and allow opportunity for the general public to have input into our overall long-term planning process.
In this, Mr. Speaker, I think that we are lagging behind trends that other parts of Canada have been demonstrating, I think especially Parliament. Now, Parliament, of course, won't disclose budget documents to the opposition parties. That would be unheard of. What I am looking at is the tradition that Parliament has started where they take out country-wide surveys. The department and the Minister of Finance will go out on a very broad, very open consultation across the country to help build business plans and strategic directions and priorities. We don't do that here in the Northwest Territories. I think where on one hand we do have this seemingly open, accessible, friendly kind of a place, on the other hand we are, I think, one of the most closed -- I will even use the word secretive -- legislatures in Canada, because we do not afford the public an opportunity to step into our process at that front end of that strategic planning area.
Mr. Speaker, our business planning process is almost a continuous year-round cycle here. It begins in approximately April, I think, when the Minister of Finance will issue call letters to -- sorry; June, I'm hearing June, Mr. Speaker -- when the Minister will issue call letters to the departments, which is the instruction for them to sit down and begin drafting the business plans for not only the coming year, but it is actually about a three-year business planning cycle that we have before us. Indeed, these plans are tabled. These plans are available to the public.
The next cycle will begin in June, when the instruction goes out to begin building up that next cycle. The draft business plans come back to us on this side of the House, Mr. Speaker, and to our committees in September. We spend a considerable amount of time -- about two weeks -- reviewing those plans and budget expenditures and priorities in considerable detail at our committee level.
Mr. Speaker, we come back to look at these again in even more detail in January when the main estimates are brought to us. Again this is done behind closed doors; again this is a review of the kinds of things that the government has indicated it wants to do. I consider it almost a rehearsal for what we are doing here now, Mr. Speaker, which is really the main event and it will be the third time that I will have seen these business plans and priorities and budget amounts in greater and greater detail.
Very effective for me as a Regular Member, as I wanted to take the time to study up on all of this stuff, but almost exclusive of the publics' opportunity for involvement to buy into this.
Mr. Speaker, look around in the Assembly today and just about any day, the gallery is empty. Not too many people either take an interest or believe -- perhaps believe -- Mr. Speaker, that what we are doing is all that significant.
Here is where I would like to go back to the theme that I talked about where I believe that our institution of governance here, this Legislative Assembly could, I believe, be stronger, if we afforded the public more opportunity to get involved in how we design our plans.
I think our success, like any other institution or any other initiative or any other project that we might want to engage in, will be likened to the degree of transparency and the opportunity that we afford people to get involved. This I firmly believe will help us build trust, build support and credibility in what we do. That is where a consensus government takes work and commitment, and sometimes risk.
I know that sort of kicking the doors open to our committee process would, for many of us, potentially be risky and might not be very comfortable. But I think that we can sustain that, I think that we can survive that and I am going to continue to promote that. It is not an original thought, Mr. Speaker. Several other Members of this Assembly have talked about this at one time or another. I want to continue talking about it. I hope that if there are any members of the public who are hearing us talk about this this morning, that they will get back to us and tell us what they think of this. It's something I wanted to bring to the floor, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you for the opportunity. I want to thank my colleagues for listening to me about how we, I believe, can make this a more relevant place for everybody in the Northwest Territories and something that will do a better job of helping us to govern. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.