SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Twelve candidates vying for seats in the legislative assembly sparred over the pros and cons of a consensus government during a second debate sponsored by the territory-based aboriginal rights group, Dene Nahjo.

For the second night in a row residents descended on the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre last Thursday where candidates for seats in Yellowknife North, Yellowknife Centre, Yellowknife South and Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh did their best to make standout statements throughout the three-hour plus session. The evening culminated in a debate about consensus government - a system developed in the NWT in the 70s where members of the legislature are elected and independents from single-member districts use simple plurality voting.

Yellowknife Centre candidate Julie Green said she's heard more questions from residents about the system of governance in the past two weeks than she has in the past 15 years. She said people are telling her the current system doesn't hold the government to account for its actions.

"They (residents) are not seeing the level of accountability in the current system that they want to see," she said. "They say 'people go in to the legislative assembly and they kind of disappear in there.'"

Green fired a dig at incumbent regular MLAs for not working together enough.

"I've seen increasingly remote and executive-style government," she said. "The result is it's partisan and non-functional."

Another Yellowknife Centre candidate, Robert Hawkins said he identifies with residents' dissatisfaction with the current system.

"Is consensus government effective? I don't think it's effective most days so people who question it are absolutely correct," he said. "There's very little accountability when it comes to cabinet decisions."

Hawkins said under the current system residents who take issue with government policy are only able to address the problems through their local MLA. If that MLA isn't a part of the cabinet, then they're "trying to challenge the government" on their own.

He said establishing a party system should at least be considered.

"Let's put it on the table," he said.

Yellowknife South incumbent, Premier Bob McLeod, said he likes the system as it is.

"In my view, our current consensus government system works very well," he said, adding the system tends to favour incumbents who in turn are given more time to work on the projects they're tackling. In a party system, said McLeod, the government would take an entirely new direction every time a new party is elected to power.

"(In the current system) you keep building on the work of previous governments until you get it done," said McLeod.

One of McLeod's challengers, Nigit'stil Norbert, said she thinks "there's a lot of room for improvement within the consensus government" system.

She said she would like to see the government take steps to establish a more traditional style of government in "21st century ways" that would see the GNWT reaching out more to community and aboriginal governments.

She said she's heard of a proposal to adopt a 2-2-2-1 system - which would include two MLAs from the North, two from the south, two from the centre of the territory, and one seat reserved for a female candidate.

She said residents are upset about a lack of transparency and accountability "that has not been happening in the last 8 years."

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