Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Consensus is not clearly defined in the NWT Act. There is room for improvement. We have discretion, and we have the latitude to change the way we do things and to improve them, and I look forward to working with Members of this House to accomplish that in the next four years. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to speak a little bit about consensus government, which always seems to come into sharper focus around election time.

I believe that we do not have to make a choice between consensus government or party politics. Sometimes if we find the things that we don’t like about consensus government, we think the only alternative is party politics. I don’t agree with that, but we have a consensus government that can be improved upon and can become more consensus.

The Cabinet that we have selected and have now been sworn in are the front line as we advance on...

So let’s just give an example: the Chamber of Commerce is having their gala AGM coming up here and they would like to have a guest speaker come from this Cabinet. As a matter of fact, they’d like to have Mr. McLeod as their guest speaker. Mr. Bouchard and I would then hear from that organization and we would extend the invitation to the Premier, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, and would in fact host, officially host. It shows such respect to the Regular Members if they not only are made aware of it but actually host the Premier and the Cabinet Members when they are in our jurisdictions...

I knew that was coming and I will only make one more supplementary. As the Premier, will the Premier commit to having input on our Caucus agenda from the Cabinet side now, agree to bring forward to the Caucus, together with the Regular Members, the exploration of opportunities for the Caucus to consider more than what we have typically in the past?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked a little bit about consensus government. The headline in today’s Yellowknifer is “McLeod Reigns Supreme,” with a picture of Premier McLeod above the headline. I think we need to maybe inform the media a little bit about how consensus government works, because we elect people to that side of the House and I don’t think that they are reigning. I think we have honoured them with the role of leadership in our government and we want to be there to help meet the needs of our people together, together with them.

I’d like to ask Premier...

Mr. Speaker, could I please seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement?

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure today to welcome two community leaders from Hay River: local businessman and Hay River mayor, Kelly Schofield.

Also from Hay River today, Mike Maher, who is a business development officer for ITI, the public administrator for the Hay River Health Authority, and the deputy mayor of Hay River.

I’d also like to recognize my very long-serving constituency assistant, Wendy Morgan.

Could I also please recognize, although she’s not my constituent she is my hero, Cece McCauley, the head of the Northwest Territories chapter of the Women Warriors.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all today I would like to thank the residents of Hay River South for electing me to the Legislative Assembly for my fifth term. I would like to thank my campaign team for their support and I would like to thank my husband, Rick, and my children, who helped me and supported me in getting here again.

I would like to congratulate all Members who were elected to the 17th Legislative Assembly; particularly I would like to congratulate my new colleague for Hay River North, Mr. Robert Bouchard. We’ve been getting to know each other a little over the last few weeks and...

As we move forward, I look forward to using my experience, my 16 years of experience in this Assembly to back up Regular Members, Cabinet Ministers. I’m looking forward to a term where Regular Members can become even more involved in the roles of the Assembly and we can work together more collaboratively.

I did want to put that explanation on the record today and say that I do appreciate having my voice on this side of the House as well. There are lots of pros and cons to being in the Executive Council. One of the pros to being a Regular Member is that you can stand up in the House and you can...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Honourable Jackie Jacobson of the electoral district of Nunakput do take the chair of this House as Speaker.