Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If it is of any comfort, I have not been active as an intervener since I was elected. This process, as you know, started a number of years before I was elected.

Mr. Speaker, I believe I was going to remind people of these principles of consensus government. I just mentioned the last couple. “Caucus is fundamental to the effectiveness of consensus government to discuss matters of widespread importance to the Northwest Territories as they arise.” Number seven, “the Cabinet must act in a way that reflects the concerns of Regular Members.”

Mr. Speaker, what is going on here? My statements in the Assembly called for transparency, and the public sharing of information was an undertaking from the Minister to disclose his plans on the request to modify process. The lead Ministers know committees want input before any responses are made. I will repeat that. The lead Ministers know committees want input before any responses are made. We have a special committee reviewing exactly this issue and we have travelled the world drumming up support for aggressive action on climate change. And yet now we have a public government letter of response and I will quote some principles again, for what they are worth. A government response making a “significant announcement” on a “matter of widespread importance to the Northwest Territories” that in no way “reflects the concerns of the Regular Members”.

Mr. Speaker, the February 11th response was the

first in a series of input points that will roll out to the final decision of the NEB. It will almost certainly approve the pipeline application. The government’s failure earlier to develop a realistic socio-economic agreement for this project doesn’t stand out well and this is our first step for this government has failed in its avowed commitment to our lofty consensus government principles. It has failed to make itself responsible or accountable to this House and it has, in so doing, given away our responsible positions and, in my mind, some potential new authority on some of the most crucial matters dealt with in the JRP report.

I will be asking the Minister of ENR why he does not consider it his first duty to respond in the Assembly on undertaking of notices or to include the views and concerns of the Members in his deliberations or to inform the committees of the positions he has concluded and why only those with sharp web research skills applied daily can keep abreast of this government’s biggest actions.

This Assembly began on a style of executive highhandedness. To save the practice and meaning

of consensus government, Caucus gathered together yet again to lay out rules in the hope that this government would finally apply standards of ethical responsibility to its behaviour.

Mr. Speaker, this system of government is falling apart. We learned Friday of the latest disasters in the bridge construction. All this government can do is complain about Members telling the taxpayers their sensitive little secrets. Mr. Speaker, we are entering into a lengthy process of comment on the biggest capital works project ever to be undertaken in this Territory, possibly in Canada. We are going into it with a government that is apparently incapable of building a bridge across a mile of water. It has bungled this bridge project at every step, informing the Assembly only when the government is dragged into public light and only when it needs more money to fuel the latest rocket on the budget and only to the degree that they feel they must. Regular Members must continually probe until precisely the right question is asked in order to pull the most critical and meaningful facts out. Public confidence in this government simply does not exist.

There are other financial vulnerabilities that we are only just learning about. Our ability to borrow is paper thin. We will soon be at the point of deciding which critical human needs we will be unable to meet. Will it be the health of our citizens through a lack of adequate hospital facilities? Will we be cutting resources for our scattered programs dealing with the burden of poverty? How about child care, early childhood education, building schools, environmental protection and other core needs?

Now this government has embarked on fulfilling its public trust in relation to the Mackenzie Gas Project. This is the point where this government must say what it will, can, and can’t do in the face of the mammoth economic, social, and environmental impacts this project will create. It must state our positions recognizing our restricted authority and current and future vulnerabilities.

As the JRP report recommends, the project should not be going ahead unless the full range of measures needed to deal with its impacts are taken. These measures will be costly and this government is nearly broke.

If this government can claim one unblemished record, it is for low-balling, underestimating, failing to predict, and failing to plan for the consequences of its major undertakings. Without the intimate involvement of all Members, I do not trust this government to cost the essential measures and secure the funds necessary to prevent the MGP becoming another financial millstone. I will not permit this government to commit us to financial, social, and environmental tragedy.

This is the last time this government will say anything on this project without the knowledge,

involvement, and consent of the Assembly. The rules of behaviour established and the principles for consensus demand -- they demand -- that this government work with these Members in matters of public policy.

I won’t read from these principles again. I expect the Ministers of this government to go away and read these principles. I am putting these Ministers on notice that each and every action on this file and every other file that crosses their desks will be rigorously studied for their fulfillment of these principles in every word.

I will be asking questions on these matters over the coming days. I will be asking the lead Minister for the Joint Review Panel report to explain these actions. I will be asking about his plans for including committees in the review and decision-making processes of the JRP. I will be asking him for his commitment that all statements and positions brought forward through these processes be made public so that all our citizens can be aware of their government’s actions. I will not be accepting the arguments for secrecy contained, for example, in the recent memo regarding JRP consultations with Members, noting that even the memo itself states that concerns about confidentiality do not preclude updates to Caucus on the process. I will be expecting a lot more than updates.

Depending on those answers I will be asking the Premier why he believes I should maintain my confidence in this government. With the dismal level of public confidence this government currently enjoys, mending these ways will be a matter of this government’s survival. I will no longer accept the violation of the principles we have agreed on and that are the foundation of this form of government.