Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is the conclusion of a process that began about a year ago with the Premier acknowledging that there certainly was an affair, and many Members...My
colleagues were extremely concerned that there was an absolute appearance of conflict that launched this inquiry.
I am a strong believer in our institution. We went down that road there, Mr. Speaker. I think, for my constituents and my leadership, they have told me over the years and they, in fact, coming into this fall session, is that we’re not interested in the drama that’s happening there, we’re interested in programs and services and real action of ourselves as an Assembly. That has always been my focus when I share with my colleagues about where I was going to stand. I was public about it and I told my constituents where I was going to stand.
So now, before us, we have the report. To me, yes, Mr. Hughes had to go down many roads, he had to listen to many views. It’s a semi-legal institution that we went through, but for me, his conclusion was that he had no choice but to dismiss the complaint based on the factors he listed in his report.
It may be a technicality, Mr. Speaker, but at the same time it’s a...Legally, this happens all the time in court, lots of people that have even admitted that they’ve done a wrong but at the same time, technically, they get dismissed. So it’s easy for me to stand up here to support the report and tell the people and my constituency that he recommended it be dismissed, and that’s the end of it. That’s the approach that I’m taking and that’s the approach I’d like to see.
We have been chosen as MLAs to serve in this House. It is a great honour. But as is often said, we got a little bit of a price and we have a ransom glory, Mr. Speaker. That means we are public figures. So that’s the cost of the glory, of the honour that we serve.
Again, when I came back here for the fall session, my constituents, as I travel around, told me up front that we’re here to work together, we’ve got to use our best energies and skills to better the lives of our community and our people, and I continue to maintain that focus. I’d like to see that we take this point, we went down every road we could to find out about was there a breach, was there certainly conflict here, and we exhausted all those avenues, Mr. Speaker. My constituency is not happy that we had to use resources, time, money, the energies of the House to continue this debate, but at the same time, we went down that road to explore and we had to see. So, once again, the people want our Assembly to put this behind us now. I believe that I’m up here to say that we’re going to have to start doing that. We have to concentrate. We’ve got just less than two years left and if we’re going to continue to use our energies on spy drama, Mr. Speaker, then we will be doing exactly that, we’ll be using our energies.
One other important point is that we cannot change the result of the report, Mr. Speaker. It’s dismissed,
it’s over and it’s time to move on. I know that they’ve told me, my constituency has told me time and time again, it’s not relevant to our government and, once again, we’re using our time and energy. I think the cost of doing that inquiry is something that the public is always watchful for. Those public funds could have been better used for programs and services. That’s what my constituency is telling me.
Because we’ve come to this point of almost a year of this issue, it’s not going to serve us to continue rehashing it, Mr. Speaker. For myself, it’s has been dealt with. I know that the complainants, my colleagues, certainly are not happy with the outcome of the report, but the report is the way it is there, Mr. Speaker. The greatness of Mr. Hughes, who led the inquiry, he listened to all and he’s bound by our legislation as well.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, overall, I’m content with the content of the report. Yes, there was a perceived appearance of conflict but, at the same time, I think the people of the NWT and my constituency still want us to move on, concentrate on programs and services, concentrate on our communities, concentrate on our people to improve the lives and make life better for the whole Territory by working together, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi cho.