Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Bromley for bringing this to the floor of the House today to allow some debate on it here.
The whole idea about devolution was to reduce our dependence on Ottawa. We keep hearing that, that we want to take full control of our lands, our water and resources, and in this process we are evolving. We’re going through our evolution, and I think we’ve shown our ability, in a very short period of time, to deal with our new environmental duties in managing our resource development. It appears, by all accounts, that this government is still listening, the department is still learning, and I think this is a good sign. I still see a government today knocking on the doors of communities and getting feedback on the creation of these regulations, regulations that will form the principles of the environmental protection umbrella that will be governed by Northerners for Northerners.
So, today’s motion before us calls for a plebiscite, and we’ve heard from Mr. Hawkins this is not a binding legal standard and he used the term “a barometer.” It’s a gauge. It’s a kind of a tool to gauge public opinions, but I know that this is not the only tool that can be used by the House and certainly sometimes it’s not the most cost effective. In fact, past debates on this very same issue of a plebiscite or a referendum put costs around $1.8 million to the Minister as a stand-alone event. Now, I know the motion speaks for this question to be added to the ballot of the next General Election, but there will still be a cost and to what extent we really don’t know.
I know we’ve heard today from a Member and also from another Member here that $17,000 range as a number, and I know this number came from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer. Now, for all due consideration, Members of this House have only been privy to this number just for a couple hours here, and this number has never been substantiated or validated by any accounting standard or practice and I do have the utmost respect for the chief electoral office and definitely the fine work that they do, but until we see a full cost accounting that breaks down the wages and legal costs, drafting costs, management costs, printing costs, the most we can hope to say at this point is that this motion asks the taxpayer to budget anywhere from $17,000 to as high as $1.8 million, which I know is high, but these are the only numbers we know. At the end of the day, we don’t know. I’m not saying it’s $1.8 million, I’m just saying that we don’t know. It’s somewhere in between.
To the bigger question, as an elected leader, as an elected official of the Northwest Territories, you’re here to do what’s best for the people we serve. My role, everybody’s role here is to act as a fiduciary in protecting of the land, the water and resources and to support any benefits of responsible economic development of the Northerners we serve. I for one have no problem, no problem at all, standing up in this House to represent the views of my riding and the people I serve. To cloud this ability in any form and to resolve our proceedings by plebiscite or even a referendum, for that matter, questions the very system that I hold true, and I’m sure it’s the same for many of us here.
So, for that, it’s unfortunate that I cannot support this motion. But I do want to thank Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Bromley for bringing it forward today. Thank you.