Thank you, Madam Chair. This is my third go around with this type of report and debate. The hard issue that tends to get overlooked every time is the fundamental discussion of how many MLAs do we think we need in the Northwest Territories to run the government, and work back from there and design our system. We tend to want to follow the line of least resistance, which is either the status quo or just add more. It’s very similar to some of the budgeting processes where we very rarely cut government. We tend to just add more because it’s easier to add than it is to cut.
I know we have the smallest constituencies in Canada between ourselves. Nunavut is even smaller and then the Yukon. We are scattered over a broad geography, I would acknowledge, but we have to keep in mind we have about 42,000 people and our population is flat. I’ve heard it from some of my colleagues as well. In all my travels across the North and all of my discussions in this House during budgeting processes as we ask for things, be it addictions or be it full-service daycares, more money for highways, roads, I have yet to hear here, or anywhere that I’ve been, anybody asking us of all the things we need to do as a government, all of our priorities where we spend our scarce resources, we need more MLAs. I have yet to hear that.
The issue for me is very simple. We are a huge government. We have a lot of MLAs. We have thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of employees. When you look at the Northwest Territories and you look at all the government that’s here, we are probably the most governed jurisdiction or one of the most governed jurisdictions anywhere. It is an issue of too big a government, too many politicians, too many other needs, and I was a proponent of why don’t we do something dramatic and look at adjusting down instead of up, which is where the 18 came from. There was enough support to at least get it looked at.
I can live with status quo or the adjustment to 19, but I just cannot bring myself to accept the fact that we have to grow government, grow the number of politicians at the expense of other things because it’s the easiest thing to do rather than living within
our political means. So, Madam Chair, thank you for the opportunity to make a few brief comments. Thank you.