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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Premier Floyd Roland and his cabinet narrowly won the vote to keep their jobs.

Just one day after Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger delivered his first territorial budget, Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen raised a motion to boot Roland, Miltenberger and the rest of Cabinet, Friday.

It was defeated 10 votes to 8.

For nearly three hours, MLAs aired their grievances over the way government has operated since the 16th Assembly's inception in October 2007, with some comparing it to a giant soap opera.

If the past 16 months has looked like one long "All My Children" program - as one MLA put it - then Friday afternoon played out like an episode of Dr. Phil, with both sides of the house complaining about communication break-downs. Regular MLAs claim they have been left in the dark on cabinet decisions, such as the Discovery Air bailout and the release of the supplementary health benefits program.

The unprecedented motion had initially been directed at all cabinet members but gradually became focused on Roland, with three MLAs calling for his resignation.

Groenewegen, along with four other MLAs, spoke about the premier's affair with a legislative assembly clerk - who sat in on regular MLA committee meetings - and said he had lost their confidence as a leader.

"These committees are the only place where we can freely vent our frustrations about cabinet and political issues and plan our daily business," said Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy, who added the relationship put Roland in a conflict of interest.

Roland did not resign, but publicly acknowledged the affair for the first time.

"The simple fact is, I have tried to protect my family," he said.

"I have refused to do interviews and so on about that situation although much could be said to give accurate information as to what happened," he said.

He said no information passed from the clerk to himself.

"Deal with families first. It is never good when a family man or woman has to sit their family down and tell them what is happening," he said.

"I'm not a perfect man, never said I was, and never will be."

When Groenewegen gave notice of motion on Wednesday, it was seconded by Tom Beaulieu, MLA for Tu Nedhe.

However, he opposed the motion Friday.

His support would have tied the vote at 9 - 9 and forced Speaker Paul Delorey to cast the vote to decide cabinet's fate. Regular MLAs vote cabinet in and have the power to revoke that privilege.

Beaulieu could not be reached by press time.

Roland said in an interview later, the message of the motion was clear.

"We need to get the information out to members and we need to share it with them and build on that."

"I think now, as 19 members, we should sit down and go through where the specific areas of concern are," he said.

The deteriorating state of consensus government was also discussed.

The 11 regular MLAs hold the balance of power and can support or oppose the policies of the seven cabinet members.

"It's fairly clear that consensus government is not working," said Abernethy.

He said cabinet doesn't have to work very hard to convince regular MLAs to support an initiative, as they only need two members to side with them.

"Two members can be brought on side through promises not even related to discussions on hand," he said.

Education Minister Jackson Lafferty said he thought the legislative assembly was turning into a circus.

"We simply cannot be changing leadership every time we may be pissed off at one or two ministers," he said.

Transportation Minister Michael McLeod said axing cabinet would be a waste of time, because ministers would have to get familiar with new portfolios, commitments to communities could be postponed, services and programs delayed and credibility with the public and other jurisdictions would be compromised "if it wasn't already."

MLAs from both sides discussed the need to put personalities aside to work together for the people of the Northwest Territories.

"If it's egos, if it's personalities, we need to sit down and it's too bad we couldn't lock ourselves in a room somewhere and sort this out," said Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay.

"It didn't need to happen this way."

Speaker Paul Delorey recognized how the motion could affect public perception of government and said the legislative assembly can't keep the confidence of the public through backroom deals, token communication and personal agendas.

"We can only do it through open and honest communications and an understanding of respect and our respective roles and accountabilities," Delorey said.

"Each of us, all 19, should walk away from this with lessons learned.".

Ramsay and Groenewegen each reiterated after the house adjourned their belief Roland should resign, however, they acknowledged another motion would be unpalatable to the public.

"We have to take some positives from this," said Ramsay.

MLAs will now have to work together with the line-by-line perusal of the 2009-10 main estimates.