Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this certainly isn’t an easy process that we’re going through. Certainly there are two parts to my statement and I will certainly be speaking my language and also at the same time, I will be speaking English right after.

[English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say a few words that I have spoken in my language. Of course, my statement will be short and right to the point. Mr. Speaker, I will be selective and choose my words wisely as this is an important era in the territorial government, in this 16th Assembly. Ever since I got

elected in this 16th Assembly, this whole Assembly

has been going around in circles. It’s like a circus.

My Speaker, I am speaking from my heart. We’re not getting anywhere. We’re trying to get ahead, but we’re here today again to talk about certain issues that we must overcome. Government is a serious business. We simply cannot be changing leadership every time we may be pissed off about one or two Ministers or whatever the case is. Mr. Speaker, this particular incident or issue, the whole ordeal, has a huge impact on the Northwest Territories, our communities and our people that we serve. Is this really what the people of the North want? We don’t know. We should find out if that’s the case.

Regardless of the vote today that we are faced with, we are in a time of fiscal restraint and economic uncertainty. This government has the responsibility to be fiscally responsible and look to a new innovative way of ensuring essential services remain available in the Northwest Territories for the residents. Changing the Executive Council does not change that fact. It only prevents the government from doing the work it needs to do in a timely fashion.

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to reflect for the record, those people who are listening on the radio, those people who are watching us, I think it’s key that we are talking about this particular motion. This motion we are debating here is a non-confidence vote on the Premier and the whole Executive Council, meaning that everyone here, Members, Regular Members, are telling us they lost confidence in us, they lost confidence in me as an Executive Council Member. You need to tell me sitting here as a Council Member, Executive Council, what we’ve done wrong, what we’ve done so wrong that you do not want our leadership. You need to face me also, eye to eye, and tell me to my face what I’ve done wrong. Have I broken the law? Have I broken a rule, policy, regulation within our government?

In my role as Minister, I have always been transparent and accountable to each and every single one of you as Regular Members and also my colleagues, also my constituents of Monfwi riding and I will continue to do so, Mr. Speaker.

So far to date, Mr. Speaker, there has been only one Member that came to my office and explained why this motion was brought forward. Mr. Speaker, this is truly a serious allegation to the North and our communities and people are watching carefully on how each and every one of us will be voting on this particular motion. This motion of non-confidence in our government, the Government of the Northwest Territories, a motion of non-confidence and me as a Member of the 16th Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of new ideas, a lot of new initiatives that we need to start implementing. We just heard about the budget. That is going to benefit the whole Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, this particular motion to me is a selfish one. You need to think about the North, the people that we serve, the Northwest Territories. If this issue here is a perception of a lack of communication between the Executive and Members that we’ve heard over and over, we simply need to improve our communication dialogue, not dissolve the Executive Council as a whole. Every organization, government, has the

ongoing challenges that we are faced with today. It’s not only us, but nationally, internationally.

Mr. Speaker, in this Assembly, we talk about working together, cooperating as a consensus government, which I simply do not see here today but we can certainly fix that. The onus is on every one of us sitting here; 18, 19 of us. It goes both ways, as Mr. Ramsay indicated. We should be sitting down discussing issues, discussing challenges, and finding opportunities, finding solutions to resolve all those issues we are faced with. We can certainly do that together, all of us together. Let’s not wait for others to come to our rescue. We simply cannot afford to continue operating in this fashion constantly changing leadership status.

Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, anything is possible if we all work together, put our personal differences aside. We are here to serve the people of the Northwest Territories. They depend on us to make the most important decisions for them. All of us as elected Legislative Assembly Members need to strengthen our working relationships and everyone needs to do their part. Mr. Speaker, can we make this government work? Mr. Speaker, yes, we can. Mahsi.