Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are at a time that the Northwest Territories needs leadership; leadership that is ready to make tough choices...
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...and represents all the people, that looks at the big picture.
Mr. Speaker, I know that much of what has been discussed was about my conduct, both personal and professional. I have been told, quite some time ago, that it would happen to me too. I remember sitting in a Minister’s office many years ago when that was said to me. I left there and I thought, what are you talking about, that that would happen to me too? As I questioned him, he responded by saying, to survive in this business, you need to have a thick skin. That has been pointed out to me on a number of occasions, that my conduct is one where I respond and react to what’s been said to me, how it’s been said to me, what’s been stated in the paper about our government and our plans. That, I must say, as I did an interview once over the last budget that I was Finance Minister in past, that there was something said to me that I must have a thick skin, and that my skin was getting a little raw, because I had started taking things a little personally. I had taken the shots. I don’t think anybody can say that they can do it without getting personal to a certain level.
In fact, it was after that budget process that I sat in the chair after the House had finished and I looked out that window and I thought to myself that in my path as a Member of the Legislative Assembly I have challenged other leaders of government and other Premiers, and forcefully. I went after them on issues, on expenditures and even agreed to disagree on our politics. I thought about that, Mr. Speaker, and I thought that the next time I see the Premier of the 14th Assembly, I am going to
approach him and apologize, because I have taken such a strong stance at times and how it must have been difficult for him to take it and not take it personally.
So I had that opportunity, actually, up at the Dene Nation Assembly in Fort McPherson and I had a chance to apologize to Premier Kakfwi, Premier of the day. It just goes to show, Mr. Speaker, that at a time when we are in this House and we are before the Members and we are before this House, that things can get rather worked up and heated. And they will again from time to time.
Mr. Speaker, I have always tried to be careful with my words on how I responded to what was said or how I would say things to others, because I believe that after awhile you must be careful what you say because we live what we say. I think that’s a
reflection of where we are today in the sense of taking a strong stance in my past as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. I say Members of the Assembly should and have the right to address the issues that come before them and their constituents about what is needed in our communities and how we represent the people of the Northwest Territories.
So, Mr. Speaker, I have thought and listened intently to what Members have said. As I said earlier this day, that I am prepared to recommit. We are prepared to recommit ourselves to a process of making it work as a Legislative Assembly, the 16th Assembly.
When we sat down shortly after the last general election, we sat down and put a vision together. That vision spelled out where we wanted to go as a Legislative Assembly. Cabinet’s task from that point was to take that vision, take the fiscal resources we had, the programs and services already in place, and try to adapt as much of it as we could so that it represented the vision and goals of the 16th Legislative Assembly. And not without
some angst and some concern and frustration, were we able to come out with what we thought was a balanced approach, a balanced document. Number one of having to first recognize we must live within our means.
We sent some strong, tough messages out there. As I spoke about running for Premier, that I was not about status quo. We needed to see change, we needed to see change internally, that is how we do things as government, and we needed to change things in how we interacted with people of the Northwest Territories. So we started that change. Strategic Initiatives Committees, yes, some Members will think that information is dry and hard to go through, but that’s critical information that we are making decisions on that source.
As well, we’ve instituted a process of engaging with regional leadership with aboriginal governments and we are putting in place an engagement with the federal government. We have engaged with them. We followed the old process, but we are following with a different approach.
Mr. Speaker, as Members have talked about, there are a number of issues of concern about responsibility as Members and how we take those. Some particular issues, whether it’s income support or ATCO proposal that came forward or the Discovery Air issue or the supplementary health package. I would say, Mr. Speaker, that with consensus style government has done a lot of work, even in the 16th Legislative Assembly. We’ve
had one budget pass through unanimously in this House. We’ve worked on the second one with Members that is before the House now. We’ve
worked on a lot of things. Yes, there’s room for improvement. I don’t think anybody here in this Assembly can say there is no room for improvement, there is room in how we do things, in how we coordinate it in getting information out. Part of that is we need commitment from all Members. When we request time for meetings, we need that time for committee members, even if it means cutting into some of their summertime. We need that commitment of time so we can present the work we’ve been working on and how we are doing.
Mr. Speaker, there’s been, and I must say if I have to sit back, yes, I’ve reflected on my personal life and my choices as have been mentioned in the media, mentioned again here in a manner that is very challenging. I have always tried to keep my personal life very, very close to myself. In fact, there have only been a few Members that have been elected as part of the 13th Assembly that still
remain here, four of us: myself, Minister Miltenberger, Mr. Krutko, Mrs. Groenewegen. We’ve survived the turmoil of many Assemblies and we are part of the 16th Assembly. This is our
fourth term and we’ve seen much happen in those years. Mr. Speaker, it is the time that we have to look at. That time and those places, many things have happened. Some of them we looked at and talked to each other. Here are choices individuals have made in their lives. They need to live their lives, try to create some separation. I would say there are very few people as Members of this Assembly that would know much about my family besides what they find on the web site about what my situation is like. The simple fact is I tried to protect my family and maybe too much as to what might happen in this House.
I refused to do interviews and so on about that situation. Though much could be said to try to give accurate information about what happened. Simply, Mr. Speaker, I have to put on the record, not because I want to but because I believe I have to, because it’s being raised again that, number one, those that cannot protect themselves in this House, so I find in my role, because of my involvement with those individuals, I have to say a few things.
One, the fact that no information has come from what Members have said, media, a breach of confidentiality of information, there has been none. I will state that now on the record in this House. In fact, if you want to talk about information flow between Members and what happens in committee and what happens when it comes to Ministers, we have to look at ourselves. This is a consensus government. We share information. We talk to each other. We share that information openly. The trouble becomes when you are not ready to release it publicly and we are talking about
proposals that may go out to the media before we have all the documentation. So that we need to work together is absolutely true.
Number two, Mr. Speaker, again, the decision when it became public, it was ourselves, myself and the person I am involved with, we went to the appropriate people and notified them of what was happening. Yes, Members are concerned about the timing, but we had in mind families first when you talk about families. Deal with families first. It is never good, Mr. Speaker, when a family, man or woman, has to sit their family down and tell them what was happening. That’s the message I had to deliver. I took it very seriously and I took that approach. From that point on, I said nothing about what’s happened, how it’s happened and tried to refute what was being said.
I will not go on beyond this. That is a personal choice I made in my life and I live with that and, as my colleague said, I will be judged. I will be judged by the Creator, as will we all about our own conduct. I have thought much about how I would react to this and how it would come forward and to what level I would go to settle a score of all the things said about myself and my involvement. But, you know, Mr. Speaker, one thing I will still stick to is what my father said to me: be respectful, don’t talk bad about others and try to do the right thing. I am not a perfect man, never said I was and never say we will be, but when it comes to doing the job, Mr. Speaker, as we heard from other Ministers here, we have taken that very seriously. The rules of conduct, the processes involved, how we present information followed all the steps every step of the way.
If I am tarnished a bit because of my personal decisions, then I wear that as well, and I have been as it is very public. But as for the way we worked, it’s a challenging environment to do the work we need to get done. Did we do a 180 turnaround from the vision and goals? I don’t believe so. We have to take the vision and goal and make it fit with what we’re presented with, the resources we have and we are still going to be challenged. Even at those times I remark that financial ripples can lead to dangerous waves. As Minister Miltenberger pointed out, those dangerous waves are here. Now, could I have predicted that when we made that budget preparation and having to live within our means? No, but we said enough. Our expenditures were outweighing our revenues. We had to make some decisions. Yes, we need to do a program review as we go forward to make some of the more substantial changes to how we operate as government, but importantly, Mr. Speaker, when you first take office you are going to have to do some changes immediately because we could not sit and wait for another six months or another year to wait for some of the results of the report.
So we find ourselves in a situation and unfortunately, as Mr. Miltenberger pointed out, there’s been a number of occasions where I have had a visit in my office and been told this event will occur to you in the next couple of days, that your leadership is questioned. I have had to live with that and tried to work with Members. I agree there’s a different way of doing some of our business.
When it came up to this motion, we went into Caucus and I asked if there was a motion. That’s the avenue we used to deal with business in some of those areas. I hope we can use that avenue and that tool to do some of our work.
I think the opportunity is before us. We definitely have to take the message seriously. We have to change the way we do business. I am prepared to make that change and as soon as we can in some areas that we can make the change, we will work at doing that.
I have heard many things today and they do weigh heavy on myself as a responsibility as Premier of the Northwest Territories. They always have.
When we talk about programs and services, I have to talk about the people we represent; small communities, large communities, trying to save the jobs we have in the Territory, try to build new jobs in the Territory, try to come up with the right balance.
We won’t always come up with information or a decision that will make everybody happy. But as leadership, all of us will have to make some choices, and choices that we know will make some people back home not happy, I think, because it’s in the best interest of the people of the Northwest Territories who make those choice, for the long-term sustainability of our Territory we make those choices. That’s the focus we’ve been putting on. That’s my personal focus, as Premier of the Northwest Territories, where we go.
There are a lot of issues that we can talk about how we’ve done good things for the people in the North, how we will continue to do those good things in the work that we will produce as Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly.
But we will also be challenged with some decisions to come up. There is a realism there that we will have to park some of these initiatives; some because they will cost too much to implement in this day and age. Will we have to back off on some of our infrastructure? We may have to do that. But right now, as we are working, we think we can do the work that’s required of us to make incremental steps to make the lives better for the people of the Northwest Territories.
I am hoping that as 19 Members we can get the job done. We need to pull it together and get it done. It is not just the seven Members; I realize that. I understand Members very well. I’ve been a Member of this Assembly for four terms. So it’s going to take 19 of us to get it done. It’s not buying the votes. I am absolutely against that policy, that way of doing business: the old boys’ club. From the day I got elected to now when I stand here today, I’ve worked to represent the people equally, even if that meant making choices that would affect my own community, my constituency in the greater good. I’ve done that. I’ve gone back home to tell them the bad news on a number of occasions.
I hope we don’t have to do as much, but I’m prepared to do that again if we have to make more of those types of choices that affect even my constituency. Because at the end of the day, trying to put a package together that builds the North, strengthens the North so when we get through this economic turmoil we come out stronger and better and a better player in Canada, where our children have an opportunity for a future that is better than ours today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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