Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 28/02) - Premier Stephen Kakfwi sustained a vicious round of rhetoric in the legislative assembly Friday as numerous MLAs called for his head.

Premier Kakfwi: "Before you convict me I want to be heard." -

But Kakfwi looks like he will ride out the storm to fairer weather, as all indications suggest a vote to oust the premier -- scheduled for today -- will fail.

Amid extended bouts of political grandstanding, MLAs told Kakfwi he did not have their confidence. They also called for him to resign over a report last Wednesday by Sheila Fraser, the auditor general of Canada, that the territorial government paid two fired staffers $256,000 more than necessary -- and provided no written justification for the overpayment.

According to Fraser, Kakfwi's former chief of staff, Lynda Sorensen, was paid $250,000 too much, while former principal secretary John Bayly was handed an extra $6,000.

"The public is tired of hearing about politicians who award their friends with lucrative contracts, and to most people that's what this situation looks like," said Frame Lake MLA Charles Dent.

"The really concerning thing here is that no laws were broken," said Yellowknife South MLA Brendan Bell. "There's so much power concentrated in the office of our premier that they have the ability to crumple up existing contracts and rewrite them.

"If we don't have a change of premier we'll be mired in this discussion and conflict for some time to come ... not able to carry forward and achieve the good things we need to."

Most cabinet ministers leapt to the defence -- if not of Kakfwi, then of the status quo. Finance Minister Joe Handley suggested that if political change was in order, a general election should be called. Others sidled up to the premier, saying Kakfwi's leadership record should shine through this kerfuffle.

"It's my feeling the premier has served the territory extremely well," said Education Minister Jake Ootes.

"There are a lot of important issues in front of us over the next year that we should be focused on," said Handley, who said a change of government would take away from important issues.

"The pipeline is moving ahead, we've got diamond mines moving ahead. ... Do we really have a better government if we don't have Mr. Kakfwi as premier? Does that somehow straighten out these perceptions of misspending? I'm not sure."

But regular members don't look like they can muster enough support to topple the head of the government as Range Lake MLA Sandy Lee, Great Slave MLA Bill Braden and Deh Cho MLA Michael McLeod said they would not ask Kakfwi to resign.

Lee disputed the auditor general's findings. Braden said it would do the government no good to throw it into upheaval with only a year left in its mandate. McLeod wanted more time under the existing government to make projects happen in his riding.

If none of the regular members change the direction they appeared to be leaning and cabinet votes as a block, the motion to force Kakfwi's resignation will fail by a 10-7 vote.

Tough talk

Even so, Friday's debate was passionate, and at times even emotionally dramatic.

Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen, who has been embroiled in the conflict of interest scandal from the beginning and eventually resigned her post in cabinet, delivered a stinging rebuke to Kakfwi.

Earlier in the discussion, Kakfwi had jumped to defend himself.

"I think this legislature is for accountability, and before you convict me I want to be heard," he said, and defended the payout to Sorensen based on normal government practice -- and saying his decision was made in a hurried and politically volatile time. He also defended the performance pay, calling Sorensen "a hard-working" employee whose long record of service was "without any blemish."

But he offered an olive branch to members, saying his government was willing to work for change to "fix it."

"I acknowledge we could have done it differently," he said, before warning that doing it differently could have led to a court case the GNWT was likely to lose.

Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Floyd Roland snorted at Kakfwi's offer, saying more policies and regulations would do little if the question is whether policies were being followed.

Groenewegen said she initially intended to support the premier, "but I can't make that speech now after listening to the premier's comments ... The auditor general's report is not defendable ... In his (Kakfwi's) defence of everything that happened, I got to be called a liar once again in public ... Loyalty has its limits, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure what I'm going to do."

Debate -- and possibly a vote -- will resume in the legislature this afternoon.