The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

The motion is in order. To the motion. Honourable Premier.

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

I need my glasses, sorry.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize Mr. Tim Mercer, who is retiring from his role as the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly after serving our territory with distinction and dedication for almost two decades. Today marks his last day in the House with us in that capacity, and it's an honour to acknowledge his significant contributions to our parliamentary institution.

Throughout his 20-year tenure, Mr. Mercer has overseen and facilitated several significant improvements and modernization efforts for the Legislative Assembly, including adapting to the pandemic-related challenges. His leadership and guidance have been instrumental ensuring a team of impartial and professional staff who provide outstanding service to both Members of the Legislative Assembly and the broader parliamentary institution, ensuring that the voice of the people is heard loud and clear.

Recently, Mr. Mercer led the development with the Intergovernmental Council Secretariat members of a consensus government process convention that guides how land and resources legislation, drafted collaboratively with Indigenous governments, will be introduced, considered, and enacted in the legislature. This is a huge accomplishment. This process convention completes the process of collaborative drafting and ensures it applies to all phases of the legislation. This process convention is unique and historic and will remain a significant accomplishment.

Mr. Mercer's professionalism and dedication to duty have earned him respect and admiration. He's been a role model for many and set a high bar for those who will come after him.

On behalf of the government and the people of this territory, I'd like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Mercer for his years of service. We recognize and appreciate his dedication to ensuring that the business of the Legislature is conducted with the highest level of professionalism and integrity.

On a personal note, Mr. Speaker, I never had to use Mr. Mercer's services a lot because I was always a Minister and the Premier but when I did, he was always honest and sincere in his answers. I may not have always liked the answers, but he was always honest and sincere. We wish him well in his retirement and hope he will enjoy this new chapter in his life. Thank you. Mr. Mercer, Tim, thank you for your service to our territory, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavours. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Diane Archie Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to join my colleagues in acknowledging the service of Mr. Tim Mercer to this institution and Members of the Legislative Assembly, past and present. When I first met Mr. Mercer, as a newly elected MLA three and a half years ago, whereupon he tried to jam 500 years of western parliamentary procedures and 60 years of NWT Legislative Assembly procedures into my brain over a course of a week, my brain still hurts, Mr. Speaker. Sitting on Board of Management, I saw firsthand the quality of work that Mr. Mercer and his staff produce for our consideration, and I always saw his advice as sound and reasoned, even when I didn't necessarily agree with the proposed course of action.

Politics -- Mr. Speaker, politics is a contact sport. Bruised egos, hurt feelings abound. Mr. Mercer acted as a father confessor, as an impartial referee, and a procedural guide to all of us either at one point or another and while keeping in the best interests of the institution and this consensus government in the forefront.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, it is clear that Mr. Mercer, the Assembly's respected gratitude and admiration for an excellent job as clerk over the past 20 years. Personally, I would like to wish Tim all the best in any future endeavours and thank him for his service. Quyananni. Mahsi cho, Tim.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As is the case with the Member for Boot Lake and for all of us here, the first -- probably one of the first people we met was Tim, and one of the first things we did was look inside the sausage maker that is politics and try and understand how we fit into this very process-oriented and pretty rigid institution. As a person who has a brand-new job, a very responsible job, having just been elected by the voters, it is truly daunting to come through the door and to try and understand which way is up. And so, you know, some of us were here in the 18th Assembly, and Mr. Mercer coached us through some of our learning curve.

I'm going to tell a story on Minister Thompson, has a lot of logo clothing from sports competitions and was always trying to sort of get away with wearing it by wearing a longer thing over it and being told no, that's not what we're looking for.

Soon after I started this job, I unfortunately had a huge burn and I had to spend weeks in bed. I had to spend weeks in recovery, and I couldn't have asked for a more compassionate and accommodating person than Tim to help me through that period. It was just such a difficult time of my life. I had just started this job, and then I was almost immediately out of action. And it turned out that that compassion was really a hallmark of the way that he treated Members and staff, you know, the -- we all lived through the death of Haylee Carlson. I saw great compassion in that and in other instances that were not as high profile. And I think that we've all benefitted from his generosity.

Certainly, as the Member for Boot Lake said, politics can be very rough and tumble and sometimes having a place to vent and trying to figure how to go for a different outcome is a very valuable thing, and Tim has always provided that for me and along with a lot of advice and guidance, which I truly appreciate and which I've benefitted from tremendously.

As far as I'm concerned, his greatest accomplishment was the assistance he gave the special committee on increasing the representation of women. It was he and the Speaker at the time who had gone to the commonwealth conference, had looked to the Samoan model for guaranteed seats for women and launched us on this process of how we could increase the representation of women, hopefully voluntarily, but if not voluntarily then with quotas. And then there were many iterations of that. There was a motion. There was an interim report. A final report. And I think that he deserves a lot of credit for the fact that we were able to really attract, through our efforts as the standing committee, a number of women to run in the last election who were successful and who are here today.

I also want to say that both of us are big fans of Arctic and Antarctic exploration, and that's been really fun to exchange articles and ideas about that, especially the infamous Sir Ernest Shackleton who went to the Antarctic, lost his boat, and came out alive, which is a pretty amazing story in itself.

I want to just note a few good changes. It's true that the focus on Indigenous languages, culture, and representation has really been heightened in Tim's time, and those are all very positive changes from my point of view when I see all the people in the interpretation booths. I'm very grateful that people throughout the territory have the opportunity to hear what we're saying in their own language.

I've also known him to provide opportunities for people to shine. He has been able to coach them to better things, to opportunities to attend conferences, training, to try new jobs, and to explore new boundaries and new successes.

And finally, I think we have with Tim our most foremost champion of consensus government, someone who understands it, somebody who's lived it, somebody who can explain it, somebody who doesn't give up on it when the going gets rough, which it certainly does from time to time. So I think that Tim's leadership here has really been transformative, and I would like to say how much I appreciate that. And I would also like to add that if Kevin were here today, I think he would say some of the same things, but he would argue with others. And he would want me, on his behalf as well as my own, to wish Tim the very best with his -- the rest of his journey in whatever that is coming forward. Thank you.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Nahendeh.

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to -- I had about five pages of notes, but my colleagues took a whole bunch from me and I started crossing them off. I got down two pages.

Mr. Speaker, my first four years being in this -- as an MLA, I had the opportunity to work with Tim during that time. I can tell you the new 11 of us probably aged him about 30 years because, you know, Oceans 11, we kind of had a whole bunch of questions and he turned on the fire hose but we kept on throwing about 11 other fire hoses at him. So he was able to help us there.

I'm very thankful for having him here, though. He was able to provide the history to some of the previous decisions and visions of past Assemblies. Throughout the four years, he provided me and us good advice, suggestions on how to look at things with different lenses that we normally don't use and had strong leadership.

When I first came into the Assembly, I can tell you a friend of mine and former colleague, Alfred Moses, sat me down and talked to me about Tim and all the help and support he received his first time during his first year. I can tell you his experience and support he received from Tim during his first time was the same as mine. In speaking with my other long-term colleagues that were there, it was the same as him. So Tim treated everybody in the same with respect and dignity that the office holds, and I thank him for that.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank him and wish him all the best on his next adventure called life. I believe the Assembly will miss his presence and service but like I've always said, if you can leave your job in a better place than it was when you first started, you've done a great job and I can say Tim has done that. Again, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to wish him the best on his retirement, you've earned it, and all the best. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nahendeh. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife South.

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have as long of a history with Mr. Mercer. I was only elected this Assembly and I haven't been a Regular Member but that's kind of a point that I want to make. As Ministers, we don't interact with the Clerk's office as much; I wouldn't have necessarily had a long history, knowing all of the many achievements I've already heard about today. I'm sure there's others. I know others may speak to those others. I actually want to speak to some of the day-to-day things, though, that I think are forgotten. They are forgotten by what happens with the public service. They forget the role of the public service in leadership because they're not the ones that get the glories. Sometimes it's us that get the glories and then there's us that don't get the glory. But the public service never does. And, Mr. Speaker, this House, this building, is actually the seat of the senior most level of the executive of the government, of the legislative branch of the government, and Mr. Mercer has now been at the head of this government -- of this institution, of this building. That's a pretty heavy place to be. But that role gets missed sometimes when we talk about who he gets the glory for the work that gets done around here. And I think we've already heard, and I know -- I do know, even from the side where we don't necessarily interact as often, that the role of the clerk helps us build relationships, keep relationships, manage relationships. It's work that often happens very much out of the spotlight but if it wasn't happening, I can't frankly imagine how any of the work in this building would get done.

And so, Mr. Speaker, although there's these very spot -- very, very key achievements - languages, the women being elected here, those are key things, there's a day-to-day function in this building that keeps democracy in the North going and it keeps democracy going in a consensus government. There's not a lot of examples to draw from. When you're in this role, in a consensus government, of how to do that job because we're special here. So when things go wrong, sometimes those are the things where leaders get highlighted. But when things go well, when things go smoothly, when work gets done, that doesn't necessarily get highlighted. But, Mr. Speaker, it's invaluable, it's the core functioning of government, and I think Mr. Mercer deserves a great amount of credit for that. And so what I want to leave him with is a little quote from Laozi //, which is this: A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.

But, Mr. Speaker, we didn't do it ourselves. Past Assemblies haven't done it themselves. We rely on the Office of the Clerk and the Office of the Clerk in this case was headed by Mr. Mercer. Thank you.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife South. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River North.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And like my colleagues, a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said so I won't repeat it. But I do want to highlight some of the changes that have happened here at the Legislative Assembly since Mr. Mercer took the helm, and I've seen them -- even in my seven years here; I've seen a number of changes. And I will say that of course the Speaker gets all the credit for the improvements that happen at the Legislative Assembly, and I know Mr. Mercer wouldn't have it any other way. He doesn't want to take any of that credit, but I believe he has a big hand in bringing the voices of this Legislative Assembly to the people of the territory. Since his time in this role, the Legislative Assembly, the television channel has become a requirement to be carried by the satellite and cable broadcasters as part of their base package. So across the territory, people now have access to our proceedings on TV. And I know that they watch them. When I go into communities, I hear from a lot of people who watch the proceedings, a lot of elders who watch the proceedings. When I began here, there was no live streaming of committee meetings, of the proceedings. We can now watch the Legislative Assembly on Facebook Live, on Twitter, on the Legislative Assembly website, on YouTube. We have access all around the world. We also have access in a number of different languages. So I believe there might be seven different languages being interpreted right now. So the Assembly, you know, it's in Yellowknife, and not a lot of people come to this building, not a lot of people in Yellowknife even come to this building. So what Mr. Mercer has really helped facilitate is taking the words of the MLAs, the representatives of the people, and ensuring that the people actually get to hear them. And I think that is going to be one of his lasting legacies.

Similar to what some of my other colleagues said, I found that Mr. Mercer's been very supportive. When we come in as MLAs, we're deer in the headlight. And he's well aware of that, he's seen many deer come through this House, and I found that he was always very supportive. And often I would receive support from him without realizing it at the time. It might be a comment that, you know, relates to something that we had previously discussed but wasn't directly related to it but it would sit in the back of my head and it would -- you know, it would impact me and it would help me. Little things. I have a poem in my inbox that Mr. Mercer shared with me after I told him about some of the things that, you know, I was experiencing as a Member.

As Deputy Speaker, I worked, you know, with the Speaker and with Mr. Mercer and he was always very supportive of providing developmental -- professional development opportunities. I had many good conversations about procedure. I know it's not something that most people are interested in but as Deputy Speaker and Government House Leader, I do enjoy those types of conversations and there's not a lot of people with the expertise that Mr. Mercer has as the clerk of a consensus government system. I believe there's only 15 Clerks in Canada. It's not a job that a lot of people do and so it's a very important job, and we need to ensure that people in those roles have the skills. And I always felt that someone was in charge at the Assembly here. You don't always get that sense in some organizations that someone's at the helm, but I always felt that someone was at the helm.

And the final thing I want to mention is that Mr. Mercer was -- he's never been afraid to present bold ideas, present options to Members that they might not otherwise consider. And he's always -- he always knows that it's, ultimately, the Member, it's the elected officials that make those decisions, but I did appreciate hearing things from him that you might not otherwise hear from someone.

And, you know, one very practical example is I was the chair of the special committee on transition matters in the last government, and what that committee does is they make recommendations to the incoming Assembly. Because an incoming Assembly is all fresh faces, basically there's many instances that whatever that committee recommends, that's what happens. And one of the options that Mr. Mercer presented was that perhaps we do a full year budget in this government. Generally we do a budget for a few months, and then we come back in the winter and the new year and hash out a much larger budget. Well, we did recommend that and that's what happened. And if that didn't happen, we would have been sitting in March 2020 without a budget. And what would have happened to the Government of the Northwest Territories? Everything was shut down. You know, we weren't getting together. We weren't able to do what we needed to do. And so because of that suggestion, which, you know, ultimately, we did accept, we had a budget for the first year through COVID. And I think that's a big deal and that really contributed to the GNWT being able to operate. And as my Member stated, you know, he would get a hand in the special committee on increasing the representation of women. And there's numerous examples like that. And, of course, you know, the clerk never gets the credit but those are just a couple of examples where credit is due. And so I look forward to hearing the experiences of other Members as well because I know that, you know, Mr. Mercer has had a very positive impact on this Assembly and on the Members. Thank you.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River North. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Sahtu.

Paulie Chinna Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to acknowledge Tim on his retirement as well, and my experience getting to know him within this Assembly. And coming into this Assembly, being a first-time elected MLA, being a first-time elected Minister, and also being Indigenous really carried hard on me as well too. You know, my beginnings were very humbling. My experience was I worked for the government for 20 years. My story is quite similar to what we discuss here every single day. I know what it's like to be homeless. I know what it's like to be raised in the system. I know what it's like to live in poverty. But then my interactions with Mr. Mercer gave me the confidence, gave me the influence to just pursue that it's a lived experience that I do have, you are a Minister, tell your story, work through your portfolio, and just get the work done.

I wanted to let you know that your presence, your leadership, your knowledge is appreciated. You're very unique in passing on that type of acknowledgement to people and to build Indigenous women throughout the Northwest Territories as well, not only in that case but also increasing the number of Indigenous employees within this institution as well and giving them the ideal opportunity and recognizing the languages that are so important and so crucial to this territory as well. I wish you well in your retirement. I wish you good health. I wish you enjoyable, great experiences. And I'm very excited for you for the next -- your next chapter in life. Take good care. Mahsi.