Thank you, Member for Nunakput. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I speak for most of us in that I am saddened that we got here today, and many of us could picture a path where we were not standing here, and I hope we can find a path forward, moving forward.

I believe that any one of the allegations heard here today would constitute grounds to remove a Minister. No public servant should ever fear their Minister making degrading comments about them. In fact, any time any of us run into any of the vicious rumours that surround this job, I think it is our duty to tell that person to stop gossiping and get back to work.

I am happy that more of the information came out today and that we can have the benefit of public scrutiny and a proper process. I thank the Premier for that. I would ask for further explanation on the point of the Minister insisting on having meetings without staff present. All meetings are required to be logged in a registry, and I believe that, if the Premier or staff know of any meetings that are not in the registry, that it be updated.

I have witnessed some of the behaviour alleged here today, and I think that it is important that we have given the Minister multiple opportunities to defend herself to all MLAs in a proper process, and she has refused to do so to date, Mr. Speaker. Therefore, many of us, if the Minister decides to speak, will be hearing her side of the story for the first time. That is unfortunate that that has occurred. However, I have spoken to many of my constituents, and I have spoken to many of MLA Nokleby's constituents. There is no doubt that she has worked hard to engage with many stakeholders and has done some great work with them. Those efforts must be acknowledged. Yet, based on what has been said here publicly today, I believe there is a cause to remove MLA Nokleby from Cabinet.

We all need to move forward. We need to change our processes such that this information came out much earlier, at the time it occurred, and did not swirl around for months in a rumour mill. Cabinet confidentiality is key. It is designed to protect the difference of opinions and allow healthy debate. However, I don't believe it is designed to protect poor performance of a Minister or breaches of our code of ethics.

Mr. Speaker, I hope we get out of here and reflect on those processes and make sure that we operate a much more transparent government. It is time for us to get our house in order, put this behind us, and govern this territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is a sad day, not only for myself personally, but for my constituents, the people of this territory, and for some of the people in this room.

Last October, I ran for Cabinet on a platform of change and made promises to do whatever I could to improve the lives of the people I represent and the lives of every resident of the Northwest Territories. I was excited by the opportunity to utilize the Ministerial positions that I was granted by my colleagues to carry out this goal.

As a Minister, I worked hard, and I endeavoured to make positive changes in my departments wherever I could. I stayed true to who I am, true to those who elected me, and true to every community member in this territory. I would not accept that things should stay the same simply because that is just the way that things have always been done. I had many concerns with current practices, including what I call "gaming the system." I properly raised those concerns with my Cabinet colleagues at every opportunity. I will continue to raise those concerns, whatever my role in this Assembly may be.

In all cases, I carried out my duties with integrity and passion. Was I perfect? Of course not. Was I outspoken? Of course I was. That is who I am, and I will always remain honest and open in my interactions on behalf of those who elected me. There is so much work to be done and only so many hours in each day. I am always striving to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible for the people who sorely need the services and support we, as a government, can provide.

One of the challenges of working within our current government is the level of secrecy that is demanded by current conventions, especially at the Cabinet level. I reject the idea that consensus government requires such extreme levels of secrecy. Secrecy and innuendo are the hallmarks of corruption and backroom dealings, not the transparent and accountable government that the public deserves. The toxic culture of secrecy has allowed my character and professionalism to be disparaged, while not allowing me to respond, reply, or defend myself. This is not right.

I reiterate that I have always worked hard and that my record as Minister speaks for itself. I am disappointed that I have been unfairly admonished without any due process and based on nothing more than gossip, hearsay, rumours, and bruised feelings. The people of the Northwest Territories deserve so much more from this government, and certainly, no one has time right now to waste on such matters.

Again, I will simply reiterate, within the unfortunate bounds of the secrecy that I am forced to adhere to, that this decision was much more to do with others than it does to do with myself or my performance working for the people of the Northwest Territories. If this truly had to do with my performance as a Minister, there are measures that could have been taken well before now. I look forward to working with all my colleagues to continue doing what is best for the people of the Northwest Territories. I will always fight for the betterment of every person in this territory no matter where I am sitting in this House. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have spent over a decade as a criminal defence attorney, which is a male-dominated profession, especially in the Northwest Territories. With small exception, I have had no direct experience of gender discrimination in that role. However, in my professional responsibilities defending charges of sexual violence and intimate partner violence, I have occasionally had questions from other women about my work. There was an implication at times that, perhaps, I was not supporting women because I was discharging my duties as defence counsel.

Usually, when engaging and discussing the context of the rule of law, the reasons why systems are the way that they are, the integrity and the ethics that I bring to that role, most of those conversations ended in an agreement that more women in criminal practice were better and that supporting women in criminal practice would, in fact, better the system. It has been disheartening, recently, in my role as an elected politician, again, a historically male-dominated profession, particularly in the Northwest Territories, that there are implications, largely on social media, that the motions of non-confidence may be the result of gender discrimination, and that the women who have supported the last motion or who may support this motion are themselves part of the patriarchy, seeking to keep women out of elected office.

Mr. Speaker, the question of whether this would be happening if she was a man could apply equally to some of the public comments that have been recently levelled at the Premier, but Mr. Speaker, being stymied in my roles because of my gender has not been my experience in this Cabinet, and I do not believe it is relevant to this motion.

On that vein of why we are here, Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that the Minister lacks insight on why, in fact, we are here, and that this may, indeed, be symptomatic of a much larger and deeper problem. It may exemplify a lack of ability to critically assess the true nature of the problem or to accept responsibility for the actions or behaviours that have brought us here.

As Ministers, we sit on the most important decision-making bodies of government. The decisions for which we are responsible have dramatic impacts on the people of the Northwest Territories now and in the future. Some of those processes simply must be kept confidential, as they are across governments, across Canada, and across the world.

As a Minister of this government, I believe I do have an obligation to the people of the Northwest Territories to do my best to ensure that our decisions are made based on rational process and sound judgement. The discussions that we have should be reflective of our diversity and of the people who we represent across the whole of the Northwest Territories. Our processes must include debate, and they must include disagreement. I believe we all have an obligation to respect one another during those debates.

My purpose in standing today, Mr. Speaker, is to speak to my decision-making process and my exercise of judgement that is leading me to support this motion. Many of the specific events, words, and actions that have led me to make this a vote of support took place in Cabinet or in meetings between Ministers and MLAs, which I do believe benefit properly from some confidentiality. It helps to encourage fulsome evaluation, full and honest debate, but it leads to a process when matters can, in fact, go public, whether on the floor of this House or through other processes open to Members of the government.

What I want to focus on, Mr. Speaker, are two qualities I think are essential to an effective Minister. I will do my best to be specific, keeping in mind the reasonable limitations I've just described. The first one is teamwork. As we were working to respond to the economic impacts of COVID-19, rolling out programs and supports across departments, the Department of Finance, like other finance ministries across the country, was working to oversee and ensure our ongoing fiscal responsibility and viability of programs. Having been directed by the Premier to work on a particular issue jointly with the Minister's office, my office began to execute on that task, but we were met unexpectedly with resistance. That resistance evolved into a bizarre contest for control over programs, for announcements, and subject matters that the Minister appears to believe were exclusively hers. To be honest, I never fully understood what it was that was being fought over. I want to assure the public this did not impede my work or that of my department.

Mr. Speaker, this was emotionally exhausting for me and for my team to navigate. The dust eventually settled, and, for reasons I also do not fully understand, seemed to blow by. It was always my intention to continue a functional relationship with the Minister and her office. What I expect, though, that the public in fact wants from all of us is the very opposite of what was occurring in this entire period, was that we must work as a whole of government, not in silos, that we should not put up blinders around ourselves as Ministers or around our departments, and that we must use all of the resources of government, as a team, to address the challenges facing the whole of the Northwest Territories. As well as Ministers and under the leadership of the Premier, we are the points of accountability for our departments, and, in my view, an effective Minister should not point to the department team or its individual members and cast them down. Being the point of accountability, Mr. Speaker, it is my responsibility as a Minister to step up and drive a solution when a problem has come to light.

My concerns over whether this Minister has the qualities of a good team player or a good team leader do not arise because of a single event, do not arise over the personal events I've described; it is the totality of observations, including the reaction that I observed in response to the non-confidence motion in June. This in totality gives me reasons for supporting this motion.

The second quality I want to speak to is that of humility and accountability, and that is the ability to identify and challenge one's own errors or biases. In my view, one of the most literal reasons that we are in fact here today and compelled to air all of this on the floor of this House is because the Minister appears unable or unwilling to acknowledge when she might be in error. I want to be told when others disagree with my judgement or when they disagree with my assessment of a problem. This helps point out flaws in my reasoning, and it can help strengthen my reasoning, through discussion. However, after eight months of difficult interactions with MLAs and other Ministers, after a notice of non-confidence in our last session, and with departments in strife, here we are. This process is embarrassing for all of us, and it is embarrassing to the dignity of this House. To be put through it does lead me to question what respect Minister Nokleby has for all of her elected colleagues. It is hard in the role of an elected politician to sometimes have to admit that we, or perhaps the departments for which we are accountable, may have made a mistake and to have to stand up and say "sorry." It is hard, but it is an essential part of this job. From my observations over the past few months, including the response to the motion in June plus this very experience this week, I am concerned that Minister Nokleby lacks the humility required to accept a relevant level of accountability for a Minister.

It is reasonable now, Mr. Speaker, that people are waiting for a single event or incident that will help to explain the dramatic step that was taken such as a motion of non-confidence or the pulling of portfolios, but, in many ways, this is more similar to the proverbial straw that brings a camel to its knees. Individually, looking at once piece of the straw, it is not likely that we would be in the Assembly right now speaking to a motion of non-confidence. However, this is not one straw. This is not even a handful of straw. Having considered the qualities I believe are necessary for the best possible functioning of Cabinet, taking into account my observations and experiences over the last several months, including and particularly the last six weeks, having also met and heard from the Premier as well as Cabinet and MLA colleagues in confidence, I am looking at an overwhelming mound of straw that does lead me to support this motion.

There is one last category of concern that, if accurate, could have been the proverbial straw. We have a responsibility as elected leaders to do our best to ensure that the government is effective, responsive, and best reflects the people and values of the Northwest Territories. We have a responsibility for our processes and for holding one another to account. My other concerns arise from comments that have been attributed to the Minister, but they have come to me second-hand. In general, words not received directly, with no opportunity to evaluate the source directly or the opportunity for the proposed speaker to rebut, should be treated with caution. For me, one person's recollection of what may have been said by a Minister within a department or at a stakeholder meeting or to another Member of this House could well fall within this category warranting such caution. However, when recollections of statements made about the government, made about stakeholders, or made about members of the public service begin to take on a pattern repeated by more than one source, well, then this is the kind of information that must be considered. If true in this case, they are very concerning. While I want the public to know as much as possible about what has gone on in my thought process when considering this motion, I will not discuss details that risk identifying individuals not present. Indeed, the public should know there is in fact a rule of the Legislative Assembly that we will not identify someone in this House who is not present themselves to speak to the matter raised. That, Mr. Speaker, is due process.

One final note: more than one of my 18 colleagues have expressed to me that they feel fearful to speak too forcefully in support of this motion lest they be subject to "wrath.” Honestly, I share some of those feelings. However, Mr. Speaker, I did not seek this office to come here and allow myself or any other Member of the Assembly to feel intimidated. For all of these reasons I will vote in favour of the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife South. To the motion. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sitting here after I have written my notes, it has become abundantly clear that we have a Premier, Cabinet, and MLAs, including myself, who have lost confidence in Minister Nokleby and that we are now in a position where we have a sitting Minister without a portfolio, without leading a department. This is not what I had intended when I cast the ballot in the fall for Cabinet, nor do I think it's what the constituents for Inuvik Twin Lakes or the rest of the NWT would have approved of. I will, however, state that there have been numerous performance issues raised, and I'm not going to get into them again as all my colleagues have spoken, well, the majority of them on the Regular side. There have been conduct issues, and we did raise them in the spring. We raised them as Regular Members to the Minister and the Premier in this meeting. There was a commitment, there was a public statement of a commitment, to these. Some have been approved with some Members; some Members have not. I and as my colleague have had a better communication with this Minister from her office, though, there has been still faults, but that is not what I am going to speak to today. It is the recent serious concerns that have come to light.

This has challenged me to my core of who I am, what I stand for, and why I am here. If the Minister was not available to us on numerous occasions where we could address this, I have been left with no choice but to have this in the back of my mind and not be able to deal with it.

Like I said, I have witnessed conduct of the Minister that is unacceptable for any Member of this House to any other Member, and, out of respect for the process, I will also not go into any details. The Minister has been offered, like I said, opportunities this week to have herself heard but has not taken this offer to the Members. This leaves us all in a situation where we are going to make this decision today with all we have heard from her.

I, as the MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, have to make the best decision for my constituents, my community, and the residents of the NWT, and I make this decision with full confidence that I have no doubt that this is the right decision. My support is behind the Premier. I support the decision she made is the right decision. However, if this motion is passed, the Member for Great Slave will become a Member of the Regular Members' side, and I will continue to work with her, and I will continue to communicate with her, and I will continue to work together for the betterment of the people in the Northwest Territories as Regular Members.

Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion and supporting the Premier's decision with regard to revoking Minister Nokleby's appointment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. To the motion. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to try to get straight to the point. We have heard everybody speak. The significance of revoking a Minister's portfolio and asking to have them removed from Cabinet is not something that is taken lightly.

I recognize the public wants to know why and what is happening. I can't and will not speak about what is happening in meetings in confidence and conversations. That is between Cabinet and our colleague and Caucuses and my meetings with the Minister on related issues.

The Premier has taken this very seriously and has worked with the Minister to repeatedly offer her support, counsel, and more. She has worked really hard for us in Cabinet and for the residents of the Northwest Territories. She has allowed us the opportunity to speak and vote as we see fit. I have to thank the Premier for that.

From what I have seen, the Minister has not taken responsibilities for her failing or taken advantage of the support offered to her. We were given opportunities from the Premier and from colleagues to work to improve our way of doing business, and unfortunately, it has not improved.

As a result, the Premier has made the incredibly hard decision to revoke the Minister's portfolios. I do know that this decision was not made lightly. This decision was made after exhausting all options to get this situation back on track. I had numerous conversations with the Premier and Cabinet on how we can improve our way of doing business for the residents of the Northwest Territories. I have heard a number of our colleagues here on why we are here. It is for the people of the Northwest Territories, regardless of if we are on Cabinet side or AOC side. I have had the pleasure to be on AOC side, and I have had the pleasure on being on Cabinet side. Cabinet, we have the opportunity to have very heated discussions, very passionate comments, and we all don't agree. We have voting processes, but, at the end of the day, we come out in unity. We have that opportunity, and I have to thank the Premier for that. She allows us to speak for our residents, and speak for our ridings, so I have to again thank the Minister. There are lots of things that are happening out there that people are not informed, and unfortunately, they are not going to hear everything, but I do have to say, I thank the Minister for her work. I have had some good working relationships with her. However, I have had worse ones, and I have to be honest about that. Anybody knows in the 18^th Assembly, I stood up in the House to be the only one that supported or didn't support something or was in the minority lots of times, but it is what your job is. You need to represent and you need to have the integrity to represent your own beliefs. At the end of the day, you need to do that.

At the end, I applaud the Premier for doing this. She is going to take a beating on it. I am going to stand for her, and I have stood for her, and I have stood for my colleagues here. We are going to take a lot of guff for this, and we are, but it is life, and it is a life of a politician, and sometimes, you have to make that hard decision. Therefore, I will be standing up with the Premier when it comes to this motion. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Nahendeh. To the motion. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is one of those hard days we have had as Legislators. We are being asked to consider a serious step of removing a Minister from Executive Council. Unfortunately, at this time, the relationship between the Premier, the Cabinet Ministers, and Minister Nokleby is not functional and cannot be repaired. Consequently, I see no choice but to support the motion of the revocation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. To the motion. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't say much. To say any more would be gratuitous at this point, but I have to express my support for the Premier. Steps were taken to try and remedy the situation, but we have reached this point, and it is unfortunate. However, I think if there is anything positive that comes of this, it has unified the vast majority of the Members of this House, and I think going forward, that is something you can build on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Hay River North. To the motion. Member for Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, it is unfortunate why we are gathering here today and hearing the statements from my fellow colleagues. However, also, realizing that we were up against a really different time, we were up against the pandemic and adjusting our programs and services and trying to accommodate what lies within that and how we are going to be distributing and how are we going to be seen as a government. Today, I do support the Premier for her decision. According to what has been displayed is there's been conversations that have taken place at this time. It is really unfortunate. I don't take this very lightly, but I am optimistic. I am optimistic to be working with my colleague on the other side and welcoming our new colleague to come and work with us at the Executive Council. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Sahtu. We will let the mover finish the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the mover of the motion, I want to make some closing comments.

Today was a challenging day as we dealt with an important issue. It is the authority of the Legislative Assembly to remove a Member from the Executive Council, and we will know that decision shortly. As Premier, I exercised my authority under the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act in removing the Minister's portfolios. That authority is further described in the Members' Handbook.

The issue before us is a question of confidence in Minister Nokleby. I set out today the issues of professionalism and integrity with Minister Nokleby and the failure of the Minister to address them despite commitments to Members and myself to do so. I also want to touch on some issues that Minister Nokleby, the public, and others have raised.

Corruption

This is not a case of a crusader against corruption being persecuted. You do not crusade against corruption by firing every staff member you hear a rumour about. You do not fight against corruption by failing to record meetings with those seeking to influence you. As a Minister, you are expected to listen to a range a perspectives, do your due diligence, investigate, ensure that human resource processes are being followed, and make sound decisions based on facts. You fight corruption by working with your colleagues, not against them, focusing on common goals.

Minister Nokleby was advised repeatedly that, if she has an allegation of wrongdoing, the proper process is to report it and have it investigated. I can also share that, in a case where an issue raised by the Minister was investigated, it was determined to be unfounded. You fight corruption by reporting it is ensuring that the full investigation is completed.

Mr. Speaker, I came into government to fight the status quo, to focus on those most in need. I remain committed to that. Acting on rumour and innuendo is not the way we should be doing things as Members of this Assembly and as Ministers.

My Leadership

Minister Nokleby would have you believe that none of the issues raised, either in the last sitting or now, are related to her at all. She told me that. My obligation as Premier is to lead the overall management of the executive branch of government, including taking disciplinary action that I deem necessary around the conduct of Ministers. I have done that, even when it was difficult to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here today with Cabinet. Most times, in matters such as this, Cabinet does vote in solidarity. However, Mr. Speaker, I have told Ministers that they are free to vote with their conscience and that I would not invoke Cabinet solidarity due to the accusations on social media against myself.

As Members, we all agreed to the Code of Conduct. We agreed to ensure our conduct does not bring the integrity of our office or the Legislative Assembly into disrepute. We agreed to treat each other appropriately, without harassment. We agreed to take appropriate steps to protect the confidentiality of personal information and other confidential information. I have an obligation, Mr. Speaker, to deal with the issues I see, issues that are raised and raised by the outside of this Legislative Assembly. I have done that.

Mr. Speaker, we are all only human, and we will make mistakes. However, acknowledging, learning from, and changing the behaviours that led to our mistakes is the way that we show true leadership. I ask that all Members show the leadership that the public demands of us and vote based on the knowledge they have now, both in our confidential meetings and publicly today. I ask that Members vote based solely on doing the right thing, not for ourselves as politicians but for the residents of the Northwest Territories. We have many urgent issues to deal with, including COVID-19, housing, education, creating prosperity, and taking care of our most vulnerable. It's time to return our focus to those issues.

In my speech for Premier, I made the following statement: If we work together within the true spirit of consensus government, we will be able to tackle these challenges together and achieve ultimate success for this Assembly, for all communities, and for all residents of the Northwest Territories. I still believe this today, Mr. Speaker. Circumstances may have changed, but the importance of the work in front of us has not. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake. The Member has requested a recorded vote. All those in favour, please rise.

All those opposed, please rise.

All those abstaining, please rise.