Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the ability to speak to the 19 seat motion here with the recommendations or amendments. I would also take the opportunity to hopefully address some of the 21 issues because my math fears the fact that if I don’t at this time, I may run the risk of not having an opportunity.
Madam Chair, with the motion before us on 19, one has to take a look at this from an empirical point of view. You have to look at the pros and cons, the pluses and minuses for 19 and how strong is this motion in this House at this time.
Although we see this could be the predominant theme here by Members, it’s very clear now that this is not a unanimous selection by many here. Really the only thing barring the fact that there are some cost implications of doing anything else, there are very few positives that I see with this motion.
This motion, speaking to the 19, puts Monfwi again in a 39.5 percent underrepresentation which is worse than it is today and Yellowknife South now is added to the list, even with some of the barriers of changes, is also under-represented. So we go from a current status quo of five to under-representation of two. We’ve done some migrations of working towards a ruling of the minus 25 percent, but quite frankly, we’re not helping ourselves. We’ve heard from some Members there that operationally this could possibly ease some of the convention protocols with the current set-up of the Cabinet and the Regular Members, but quite frankly, that’s not a decision for this House. That’s a decision for the 18th Assembly. So I want to remove that from
discussion here.
When you look at the Yellowknife ridings in the 19 seat model, almost every one of those ridings have toed up to the 25 percent rule. Given the potential growth, the in-migration of the territory, which is clearly documented, Yellowknife will be under-represented again in short order. All the ridings that had issues will definitely creep over this 25 percent in due course.
It has to be said that Yellowknife residents are looking for things beyond the status quo, and as I clearly said, status quo is not an option and this model echoes so much status quo similarities and the fact that the voter parity for Yellowknife doesn’t change from what it is today, I’m sure Yellowknife Members would all agree that this is something that they don’t want to hear. Again, I agree, costs are contained within this 19 seat model, but Yellowknife residents have not been able to increase their ability to narrow that gap in voter parity, which they’ve always been saying that they want to get
up. They’re not looking for 48 percent, but they’re looking to see some modest growth, in terms of what truly is a representation of population.
So really, when I look at a 19 seat model, I don’t really see any win here for Yellowknife residents and there’s such a huge setback for Monfwi and also, to a lesser aspect, with Tu Nedhe. Really, quite frankly, I have a really hard time to agree with this type of model.
What really I think Members have to consider is the fact that we’ve got to do what’s best for the people of the Northwest Territories considering all avenues, and when you look at the 21, this really gives a greater voter distribution of Yellowknife ridings, it gives us a lot more breathing to the 25 percent rule, which will be violated in less than a couple of years. You’ve got to remember we’re going back to this in only eight years from now. So we’re going to be back to where we were in no time at all. For a 21 seat model, this is Monfwi’s only option to keep within the 25 percent ruling. This conversation comes up time and time again for Monfwi and back in 2006 this was mentioned countless times. Quite frankly, we’ve got to start doing something. We can’t continue to put Monfwi in the corner here and ignore their plea. I think we’ve got to heed that as well.
Nineteen does not give us any movement whatsoever to deal with the growth of our territory. If indeed what we’re hearing from Cabinet is that our economic opportunities are there, that we’re going to have growth in the Sahtu and we’ve got to think about growth, then the 19 model does not allow any of that to occur. That’s where the 21 model definitely has more merits. What we’re looking for here is, and if we’re hearing from Cabinet that devolution is coming down the pipe and we’ve got all these new positions and new departments, clearly the workload is going to be a lot heavier for everyone here and the 19 seat model does not address that one bit. Quite frankly, really at the end of the day, when it comes from a model or design for legal under-representation standpoint of the 25 percent rule, the 21 seat model clearly is the favourite here. Again, I totally agree the Sahtu is going to be affected with 21, but the argument could lend very nicely, given the fact of what we know today and given the fact that we know of all the exploration that’s happening in the Sahtu. The Sahtu would lend itself, potentially, for another seat in eight years and I think mathematically that would probably work just perfect and it’s something we need to make sure we consider.
With the 21 seat argument, Yellowknife does get a small but respectable bump in voter parity, to the 38.09 percent. This is still moving away from the 36 percent that we’re seeing today. That’s something that they definitely have spoken loud and clear on when I’ve been going door to door.
Yes, I know costs have been brought up to the table, but I think the issue of cost has predominantly been made moot as a result of the fact that we can’t put a price on democracy.
So when I look at this from the 50,000 foot aerial photo that we’ve got before us here today, clearly what we want to do is provide a model which meets the majority of the needs of Northerners, meets the majority of needs of our residents and tries to keep us out of the courts. Should we go to 19 seat model, I can guarantee you that we’re flipping a coin 50-50 that we’re going to get a Charter challenge on 19 seats, whereas a 21 seat, I can probably almost guarantee, but I can’t 100 percent guarantee that a 21 seat model will keep us out of the courts. Thank you very much.