Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, during debate in this esteemed House, some Honourable Members took our unique form of consensus government to task in its failure to deliver a binding result of non-confidence in a Member of the Executive Council.
Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear in stating my opinion that events surrounding the Mid-Term Review do not represent a failure of consensus government. Rather, it was a failure of good governance. Consensus government is not defined by how we choose our leaders or how we hold them accountable. Our system is based on the role of Honourable Members to get their fingerprints on legislation and spending decisions. Through our strong committee system and generous information sharing between Cabinet and Regular Members, each Member is afforded great opportunities to contribute to the development of our laws and how public funds are invested in our communities.
Good governance is another matter, Mr. Speaker. There is nothing inherent to consensus government that prohibits accountability mechanisms like the Mid-Term Review. In respect to holding government accountable, Regular Members serve as an unofficial opposition and work to represent the concerns of their constituents when government is failing to deliver results. Suggestions that accountability mechanisms like the Mid-Term Review or opposing what the Cabinet and Premier bring forward is party politics is simply false, Mr. Speaker. It is part of our jobs as Regular Members. It is the duty of this side of the House to ask tough questions and, yes, to make tough decisions when Cabinet is not performing in its duties.
Mr. Speaker, I share the frustration of my honourable friends on this side of the House who have criticized Cabinet's outrageous approach to the Mid-Term Review. They acted in bad faith. I think we deserve an apology, and the people of the Northwest Territories deserve an apology for how they handled the Mid-Term Review. But I do not believe that consensus government is dead, nor do I believe that it is dying. Now is the time for reform, to strengthen our ability as Regular Members to hold government to account, and to establish new, transparent rules and conventions that will restore trust in the public that our government is accountable to the people it serves. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.