Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can't support this motion, and I won't support any further motions within this to start looking at a party politics-type system.
I believe in consensus government. It has its pros, and it has some cons, but I think that the big question here, and a couple of Members have raised it, is that for an institution that prides itself on hearing the people, which it says right in our code of conduct, I believe, I don't think we heard them on this one, because there has not been a groundswell of support for this, and I think the approach that we are taking is the wrong approach. That goes against what this institution is supposed to be doing.
The Member from Frame Lake, the sponsor of the bill, said it well when he said that it can't be piggybacked onto this. It is one that has got to either come forward as a private Member's bill or in a plebiscite. We cannot assume that we know what the people of the Northwest Territories want, because we didn't ask them. They didn't tell us. They have more important issues on their minds right now, and we should respect that.
I can't support this, and I will not support any further amendments to Bill 24. I think we had a debate on Bill 24, and we have comments on some of the items that are in it. Again, I think the Member from Nahendeh said it when he spoke about an elder, this institution is based on the Aboriginal principle of a circle sharing type of governance, consensus decision-making, mixed with some Westminster British-style parliamentary procedures. The Member from Sahtu, I think, said as much in his Member's statement today.
We shouldn't sit here and assume that we know what is best for the people of the Northwest Territories when we have not gone out and asked them exactly what they want. There are a couple of opportunities for that. I think a private Member's bill is a great idea. A plebiscite could be considered. There is the Electoral Boundaries Commission. That is going to be struck, I think, during the midway of the next Assembly, and I think there is an opportunity there.
There is not a groundswell of support for this, not from what I have been hearing, and there was a comment made that the people in the small communities don't have a voice. Yes, they do. We are that voice, and we have to listen to what they have to say, because it says right in our Member's code of conduct, "Hear the voices of people." We didn't hear the voices of people on this one. Thank you, Mr. Chair.