Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to provide some comments in relation to the Electoral Boundaries Commission. I just wanted to start off by saying, first and foremost, I don’t think we need any more politicians to represent the people in the Northwest Territories. I think 19 is very good. I’ve been here for almost a decade and the scenario that we have today is a workable one, it’s a manageable one.
Some Members are talking about the cost and that certainly is a factor in all of this, but I want to make one other thing clear. That is that I wouldn’t support any move to erode what representation the citizens of Yellowknife and my riding in Kam Lake have in
this building. Again, I either would stay with 19, the status quo, the recommendation in the report, or I could be persuaded to look at the option to go to 21, if that presents itself later this afternoon. Again, I think, if we are going to look at adding a seat outside of Yellowknife, adding a seat to Yellowknife certainly would have to happen, in my mind. The report speaks to that and certainly that is something that may be available to us later today.
We have gone through this before. I know some Members have been here for a fifth term for a couple of you, and this is my third term, and there are other Members that have been and lived through an Electoral Boundaries Commission report. The last one was eight years ago, where the Legislative Assembly just basically decided not to act on the recommendations of the report. That obviously is an option that’s available to us, as well; you know, just don’t do anything with it. I think we have to be thankful for the work that was done. We gave instructions to the Electoral Boundaries Commission. We sent them on their way with looking at 18, 19 and 21 and they did come back with recommendations.
One of the interesting things is we really have to take the politics out of this going forward. You can just see it; I mean, it’s there. I don’t think politicians should be making decisions that will directly affect them. That should be taken out of our hands. The Electoral Boundaries Commission was commissioned and that’s supposed to depoliticize the process, but it doesn’t do that because the report comes back and politicians end up deciding. So we really have to look and find a way when we get into doing the next Electoral Boundaries Commission report eight years from now that these recommendations – of course, Members eight years from now will have an opportunity to provide input to the Commission – should be binding. They should be taken out of the hands of politicians. You know, we have a justice that chairs the commission. The directions are explicit; they’re direct. Whatever the commission goes out and comes back with, I think the people of the Northwest Territories, because that’s who the commission gets out and talks and speaks to are the people of the Northwest Territories, then they would come back with their report and that would be what happens. It would take the politics out of it. I think that’s what it was intended to do in the first place, but the politics gets back into it and it gets very complicated. Again, people can say they don’t have political agendas, but everybody has a political agenda that’s in this room. Again, I think it will serve us well in the future to depoliticize the process.
For today’s purpose, again, I wouldn’t support anything that is going to erode the representation that Yellowknife has in this House. I, first and foremost, would support the 19 Members as outlined in the report. Failing that, I would support a
move to go to 21 Members. We are actively trying to grow our economy here. We have devolution, we have a lot of exciting things happening in the economy, and my belief is we are going to attract more people to live here in the Northwest Territories. I wouldn’t be frightened to go to 21 Members. I could live with that, but my first look at this is we should try to stay with 19 Members. Thank you.