Mr. Speaker, I am sure all the people in the gallery and all the Members in this House and all people listening on the radio and watching on television can feel the tension in the air. It’s so thick you could cut it with a knife right now and it has been for some time. Mr. Speaker, it really is a tough situation we are in. It’s tough for all of us. We heard from many Members here speak with great emotion and voice some real concern.
Of course, Mr. Speaker, I have to mention it’s really a strange situation we are in also, because usually a government’s confidence is voted on after they present the budget, not before.
Over the last few days, I have been really trying to take stock of where we are at and how we ended up here. I certainly, if there is an issue with Cabinet, I take my share of the blame if there is concern about our conduct. I really would have liked the opportunity to see how we can resolve it.
Mr. Speaker, I considered resigning if Members are considering that I am not doing my job. I will continue to offer that. I think that should come in the form of a review. I was somewhat surprised to see this motion come forward and I tried to talk to a number of Members over this issue. Why don’t we have a mid-term review? That’s not something
that’s being contemplated at this point. They thought it was too late. Some Members said it was complete lack of confidence in our government. Some Members even went as far as to say I didn’t get what I wanted from this government for my riding, so you guys got to go.
Mr. Speaker, I have also heard from the general public. The issue I have been hearing is there‘s a clash of personalities amongst us as 19 Members. There are a number of people who will probably never get along in this forum and that’s something that is very serious.
Mr. Speaker, I say that because I am a strong believer -- and I make no bones about it -- in the consensus government style. Consensus government is something that I have worked with all my life. It is the only style of government that I know and participated in. I have worked with band councils. I have worked with Metis councils. I have worked with regional governments, aboriginal governments and when it works, it works well, but if people don’t respect it, it won’t work. That is the basis of consensus government. It takes trust, it takes respect and it takes an awful lot of communication.
Mr. Speaker, I have also watched the party system. I have studied the party politics style. I’ve never liked what I’ve seen. I’ve seen a lot of people, there’s a lot of yelling, a lot of arguing, and very little communication or sharing of information.
What concerns me is since we got together as Members of the 16th Assembly, we all had high
hopes. We had lots of smiling faces in those days. We really tried to work together. That was a really strong theme amongst all of us, was to work together. As soon as Cabinet was selected we started to see lines being drawn. I think before Cabinet even moved one decision we were being accused of doing certain things. That has made it very tough to go about our business. We’re starting to see that escalate now. We’re starting to see our consensus style of government being brought to a virtual standstill. There is starting to be a lot of what I guess could be called threats, a lot of strong words amongst ourselves, and absolutely no chance of us getting together for a group hug or anything of that nature.
---Laughter
I’m trying to make light of it, but the reality is it’s going to be a real challenge for us to continue to work together. It’s at a time when our economy is really in a downturn situation. It’s a very difficult time for a lot of our communities. I think a lot of Members have mentioned that. It’s a lot of tough slugging for our residents and businesses. We
should be looking for solutions and to make tough decisions.
As I looked at what could be the possible outcome of this whole exercise I’m really struggling to find any win in any form, no matter what the outcome. If we remove all Members on this side of the House and put them on the other side of the House and change seats per se, we still are not going to be functional. We’ll have the same debates. We’ll have the same stalemates. We’ll have to wait for the new budget to be drafted. I don’t believe if the Cabinet goes down, the budget is going to stay. We’d need an interim budget. If the government is recognized for its budget -- and that’s their signature series of what we’re doing, the decisions accumulated -- then that’s going to be really tough. It will take a transition period.
Even if we change some Members of Cabinet, depending on who gets into Cabinet we still may have the conflict that we have amongst some Members. Whether it’s on the Cabinet side or some Members go on the Regular Members’ side, the dispute is still going to be there. I think our only chance of surviving this government is to keep the current government in place, continue to try to work together to try to look at what are the serious allegations and challenges and issues that have been raised by the Members and try to work them out. Almost every Member has raised an issue over process, about how we’re not doing well enough in communicating, how we’re not doing well enough for giving advance notice, how we’re not doing well enough to responding on different issues. I think those are issues that can be overcome. But we need the opportunity.
The only other solution would be for all of us to resign, all 19 Members, and start again. Because there’d be no easy way to get through this and we’ll just be at a stalemate after stalemate for the rest of our term.
I think we are to take the time to review what our challenges are and deal with them. We should take the time to work on a better communication system. We should also improve our decision making process. We should all commit to work together, put aside our differences, to help the people in our communities, help our workers, our businesses, then not be spending time on issues that many people are viewing as a clash of personalities.
We need for the NWT to see us emerge from this as stronger; stronger from going through this financial crisis, going through this political crisis. We have to focus on our future, not our differences. I would personally believe that it’s a waste of time for us to go through the TLC process again. New Ministers would have to take the time
to become familiar with the departments, their new portfolios, and set a new agenda. We’d probably see a lot of commitments we made to the communities, those things may have to be postponed. Programs and services that we’re working on may be delayed. And for sure the credibility with the public or other jurisdictions would certainly be compromised, if it’s not already.
I think all of us have heard from the leaders in our communities, from our constituents, from the NWT Association of Communities, from the Chamber of Commerce, from aboriginal governments, from aboriginal leaders, and they’re all basically saying the same thing. The message is pretty clear: Set aside your personal conflicts, work on issues, get on with the work that’s needed for the people of the Northwest Territories. Give the people of the Northwest Territories the comfort of having a stable working government that’s going to be there during the difficult times. I’m serious. If we can’t do that, then we may need to look at the only alternative we have, which is to go back to the polls and let the people decide.