Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly Twentieth Anniversary of the Legislative Assembly Building Premiers’ Panel Discussion: Moments in Time November 1, 2013 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories PREMIERS’ PANEL DISCUSSION Chair Mr. Doug Schauerte, Deputy Clerk of the Legislative Assembly Northwest Territories Premiers Mr. George Braden Mr. Richard Nerysoo Hon. Nick Sibbeston Hon. Dennis Patterson Ms. Nellie Cournoyea Mr. Jim Antoine Mr. Stephen Kakfwi Mr. Joe Handley Mr. Floyd Roland - 1 - PREMIERS’ PANEL DISCUSSION November 1, 2013 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories DEPUTY CLERK OF THE HOUSE (Mr. Doug Schauerte): Good evening. Can I have your attention, please? Order! ---Laughter If I could call this session to order, I‟d like to welcome one and all to the Premiers‟ Panel that we‟re calling Moments in Time. It‟s to mark this 20th anniversary of this beautiful building that we call home. For me, it‟s a true pleasure. My name is Doug Schauerte. I‟m the Deputy Clerk of the Legislative Assembly and I‟ve had the pleasure of working with these folks, these icons of territorial politics, for many years. I know where all the bodies are buried. ---Laughter It‟s been a real pleasure and a real honour for me to serve as moderator for tonight‟s panel discussion. This is a family reunion of sorts. That‟s the feeling I‟m getting. It‟s like a homecoming. I know the folks down at Pine Point did something akin to this earlier in the summer, so it‟s a real pleasurable experience. You can tell by the free and easy conversation how happy people are to see one another again and to get reacquainted and caught up. It‟s truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Although time marches on and stops for no one, we are really looking forward to this exchange. So I‟d like to welcome back nine of our 10 former Premiers to the place of the people. Unfortunately, Don Morin is south on personal matters and is unable to join us tonight. He‟s the only one and we send out our regards to Don Morin. This building is aging very gracefully, as you can see. In my humble opinion, I think our former Premiers are doing likewise. ---Laughter ---Applause The theme of our 20th building anniversary celebrations is Honouring our Past and Embracing our Future. Along the line of honouring our past, I would like to just quickly take note of the presence of a couple of very important people in the political history of this great territory. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the presence of – I‟m not sure if he‟s with us right at this moment, but you would have seen him down in the Great Hall – former Commissioner Stuart Hodgson, who is with us this weekend and we‟re very happy for that. - 2 - Mr. Hodgson was Commissioner of the Northwest Territories from March 2, 1967, through April 6, 1979, for about a 12-year period. He was the first Commissioner who resided in the Northwest Territories. He was the Commissioner at a very exciting time in our history. The capital had recently transferred from Ottawa to Yellowknife and with it came a lot of growing authority that was also being transferred. He was appointed an officer to the Order of Canada in 1970 and was also a decorated Royal Canadian Navy veteran. He was affectionately nicknamed Umingmak by the Inuit people of the North – which is muskox in the Inuktitut language – because of his big presence. He was also the last Commissioner, I should note, to actually appoint Members to the Territorial Council, as it was known back then. He was also the last to actively participate in the political debates of the day. He wisely travelled the North, which is another thing he was known for. A very warm welcome, as I see him coming in now, to Mr. Stuart Hodgson. ---Applause I would also like to acknowledge and warmly welcome former Commissioner John Parker, who was Commissioner of the Northwest Territories from April 1979 through July 1989, a ten-year period of time. He was also appointed as an officer to the Order of Canada in 1986. Mr. Parker made significant contributions to the evolution and development both of the municipal government here in Yellowknife, but also the territorial government, as we all know. He moved to Yellowknife in 1954 and worked briefly as the manager at Rayrock Mines and then in 1964 helped to establish Precambrian Mining Services here in the North. He was elected to the town council in 1958 and elected mayor in 1964. Mr. Parker was the last Commissioner to act as the head of government, so to speak, in the capacity as Commissioner. I found a great quote that described Mr. Parker as the “true steward of Canada‟s North.” He‟s credited with helping to shed the last symbols of colonial power from Ottawa, and largely through his work even prior to his time as Commissioner through his membership on the Carruthers Commission, which was an advisory body that led to many important changes in NWT political development. So, a very warm welcome to Commissioner Parker and his wife, Helen. ---Applause Of course, not to be forgotten, another former Commissioner is a stranger to no one, Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, “Tony” to one and all. ---Applause Although we do it with tongue firmly in cheek, we often comment about Tony‟s varied experiences here under this dome as former Speaker, former Minister, former Sergeant- at-Arms and, of course, former Commissioner, a man of many talents and a man full of seasons. Welcome, Tony. - 3 - ---Applause Very quickly, I would also like to acknowledge in the gallery, the presence of former Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. William “Binx” Remnant. Welcome, Binx. ---Applause I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the presence of former Clerk David Hamilton, who was instrumental in the design and construction of this beautiful building. He‟s a mentor, a friend, gentleman and a scholar, so a very warm welcome to David and his wife, Kate. Thanks for coming. ---Applause Without further ado, you are here to hear from our former Premiers. I made contact with these folks a few short days ago and posed some of the questions we might like to put to them tonight, so hopefully they‟ve prepared. I see some of them have sheets and sheets of material. We are limited to about an hour, but I know, as former politicians, we will have to keep things in pretty tight check here. What I would like to do first of all is perhaps go in chronological order. I would like to put a question to George Braden. Mr. Braden was, of course, the Government Leader from 1980 to 1984. This was the term that was used prior to the term “Premier” being adopted in 1995, when Ms. Cournoyea was our Premier. So, Mr. Braden, if you could, would you please share with us what your most significant experiences or challenges were in your time as Government Leader and perhaps what you are most proud of. MR. BRADEN: Well, one of the biggest challenges was at the session in Hay River when I was leader of the government and I had to stand up and inform all the public servants in Yellowknife that we were going to kick them out of their government- subsidized accommodation. ---Laughter It didn‟t make me very popular and I made myself even further unpopular by saying next on the list is Hay River and then Fort Smith, but it actually worked really well because we ended up, in fairly short order, with a thriving public private housing market here in the Northwest Territories, but there were a number of other challenges. The repatriation of the Constitution happened a few years into our mandate, and I believe it was my friend and colleague Dennis Patterson who cooked up the idea to take the whole Legislature down to Ottawa to lobby the federal government about Aboriginal rights and territorial provincehood. Believe me, if it wasn‟t for working with my colleague Nellie Cournoyea, it was a big challenge, but I think all of the MLAs at that time did a superb job. I was very fortunate to be asked to be the commissioner of the Northwest Territories Pavilion after I left politics. I only served one term. That was just an exciting time for me - 4 - personally, because a million and a half people went through our pavilion in Vancouver and they were just amazed at the story of the North, which included Nunavut at that time, that we had to tell. Those are a few of the major accomplishments. There is some other stuff that I will never, ever forget. After every session we had what we called a “perogy party.” ---Laughter It was a prorogation party. We had our sessions in the Explorer Hotel in the Kat rooms, and one of the Kat rooms was set aside for our party. The Explorer Hotel had this old, upright piano. It would be wheeled into the room, session would end and everyone would come into the room and have a refreshment, if I can use that term. I will never forget one particular perogy party. Someone was playing the piano and it was just before Christmas. Mark, Ludy, Ipeelee and John Parker were singing Christmas carols simultaneously in Inuktitut and English. ---Laughter I will never forget it. It was a classic moment. So those are a few comments to the question you had.