Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being a Member of this House going on four terms and 14 years in to this office, this has always been the hardest part of the job, from the 13th Assembly to

where we are today.

I think one thing that we realize every time we go through this process, we all get tarred with the same brush regardless of who it was or who it is or what the outcomes are. It does affect the image of this office and I think it’s important to realize we all have a major role to play in consensus government regardless if it’s Members of the Executive, Members of this side of the House and Members of the executive...(inaudible)...and, more importantly, the honour and aspirations that we are here to serve. It’s the people of the Northwest Territories. When we cannot even trust ourselves or be honest enough to each other to admit that something was going on, for me, that is the problem I have. I had to get an e-mail from a particular spouse to realize this was happening. I didn’t clue in that this was even on the radar.

I think, for myself, to have been involved in the committee struck and going out to different hearings, being involved in the day-to-day deliberations of this House, committee structures and the role that we all play, realizing that we all have certain roles to play in the movement of legislation through this House, regardless of how we debate it, what we say in camera or basically how the outcome turns out, that it’s important that the dignity of this institution is upheld. I think that’s the issue for me.

Mr. Speaker, contravention of section 75(1)(a) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act has definitely been breached. I think, if anything, the outcome and the findings of this report and the amount of time and money that was put into this thing, I think, at the end of it all, yes, there is a motion before us here today. But the question is, have we learned anything from this experience. Is anything going to change in regard to how we do business? Is anything going to happen to improve the way we deal with each other as Members? I think that is the threshold of this problem; that there are fine lines drawn in the sand and certain people are on one side of the line and certain people on the other. Until we remove that fine line, we will never get over this hurdle of the dignity and aspirations of who we’re here to serve and be honest and trustworthy to each other. If we know there’s something going on or something’s happening, at least have the ability to talk to each other. For me, that is the missing link on this

process. We didn’t have to go there. I think if we were honest with each other and this issue came forward when it should have and not waited six or eight months down the road, we wouldn’t have had to go through this process.

Mr. Speaker, I think it’s crucially important to realize that the judgment here is fair regardless of the individuals that brought this issue forward by way of the complaint, but they also are resonating to how this happened. They made the decision to get to the bottom of this. To make an issue, but again, was it a fair and transparent process? For me, it wasn’t. But again, that’s the decision that’s going to have to be decided by the Board of Management and look at the rules and procedures of this House and how we go forward.

I think, Mr. Speaker, it’s so vital that we honestly -- honestly -- leave this room tonight with a breakthrough in relationships between that side of the House and Members on this side of the House regardless of who signed the letter or who didn’t. We have to get past that. If that’s what’s going to happen here tonight, well, hopefully it does. But if it doesn’t, for myself, I’ve seen too many bridges burned over the years because of personalities. I’ve seen too many good people get worked over or worked out of their potential because of frustration. I think it’s so critical that we, as legislators here tonight, make the decision of moving forward honestly. That’s all we ask: be honest about where we are going from here forward. I think it’s so essential that we, as Legislators and Members of the 16th Assembly...We swore an oath when we

came to this office to uphold the aspirations and dignity of this House and, more importantly, to serve those people of the Northwest Territories regardless of stature. I think we’ve got to do that.

Mr. Speaker, in regards to the inquiry and the commission, I, for one, feel that they did the job with the tools they had. They made the decisions in regard to the judgment of what they had presented in front of them. Yes, I think it could have been opened up a little more and allowed for more inclusion of certain people who, basically, were not able to defend themselves, but I think, more importantly, to allow for a process that’s open, transparent and also the whole conclusion is to bring closure to whatever process we go through.

Mr. Speaker, in regard to the decision that we all stood here today and I, again, would like to say we’re all losers here, there’s no winners, there’s losers, and we are all losers. I think we’ve got to realize that and I think it’s important to realize, Mr. Speaker, that we seriously, seriously take this motion for some meaning and make changes going forward for the benefit of all the people in the Northwest Territories and get over these petty battles that we’ve been fighting going on two years,

ever since we got into office, from the election of the Executive Council, to where we are today.

Like I say, in 14 years, this is not the first Legislature that’s gone through this. If anything, every Legislature I’ve been in has gone through this, but the thing is that that’s all people remember of those Legislatures that what we’ve gone through are the bad things that happen and, basically, never talk about the good things that we can accomplish without having to go through these types of events.

So, Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I’d like to move a motion to amend.