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The legislative assembly has been called a circus and a soap opera in recent weeks, as MLAs from both sides of the house have aired their concerns about the way consensus government is working. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photos

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The party lines have been drawn. The only problem is there aren't supposed to be parties.

Although consensus government is founded upon the collaboration and free sharing of information between cabinet and regular members of the legislative assembly, the first three weeks of session have looked an awful lot like a party politics system.

As a result, MLAs from both sides of the floor have recently spoken about the effectiveness of the NWT's style of government.

Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay has accused a few ministers of "muzzling" cabinet because the group votes in block support of their policies and not freely for their constituents. However, regular MLAs have done just that in twice unanimously voting to defeat some of those polices last month.

Ramsay rose to discuss the state of consensus government, following the public upheaval over the supplementary health benefit program and board merger plan.

"These two issues and the way in which this government has conducted themselves speaks volumes about what is wrong with consensus government," he said on Feb. 19.

Every single regular MLA has gone on record in the past 17 months to say the government has been doing a poor job including them in decisions.

Many told cabinet they did not do enough research or consulting with affected parties before releasing the two policies publicly and some accused cabinet of ruling through "fear and intimidation."

Premier Floyd Roland said cabinet is caught in a catch-22.

"When the cabinet comes out with a plan that has a lot of detail, we are chastised for coming with an already fully-developed, ready to implement plan," he said.

"When we come out with a conceptual idea, then we are told we don't have any information, we don't know the subject and we don't have the key information."

It has led some, including the premier, to question whether it is time to look at other forms of government.

Former premier Stephen Kakfwi said he believes consensus is the only style that can work in the North. Kakfwi came of age politically among the ranks of Dene leaders of the 1960s and 1970s. He said he learned much about consensus government by watching chiefs talk to everyone - to get inclusion from everyone - before drafting a vision.

"A true vision is one that is developed by everybody," he said. "Everybody feels a part of it."

"You can't change your neighbourhood without talking to your neighbours."

He said many of today's politicians don't have that background.

Kakfwi added there is no power in being premier.

"I was only a premier because I had cabinet support and support from the majority of MLAs on the other side of the house on most days," he said.

"I knew to get anything done, I had to talk to them all the time."

He realized rivalries develop.

"There were members who never agreed with me and worked quite often contrary to what I did," he said. "I recognized it for what it is."

"In order for consensus to work, you have to have people around you who say, regardless of what I think of you - if I like you or not - this plan that you are working on ... it's a plan that I am part of."

"That is fundamentally what is missing to me in the legislature," said Kakfwi.

Arlene Hache, a recent Order of Canada recipient and long-time social activist, said she doesn't view the present system as consensus, but as deal-making.

She said consensus, as far as she knows, is an indigenous system rooted in tradition where leaders sat down with community members for discussions "as long as it takes until there is an agreement on what's best for the community."

"What we experience here is a hybrid of that," she said, but added both cabinet and regular MLAs really sit in opposition of each other.

"There is no recognition that colonization has damaged the concept," she said.

She said the motives of those in power is to stay on past the next election, while true consensus government is driven by community good.

Kevin Anderson has lived in the North since February, 1992 and has lived under both styles of politics. He said he has seen obvious signs of conflict between Yellowknife and the communities, region versus region and cabinet versus regular MLAs.

MLAs from remote, off-the-highway communities have complained government isn't tailoring solutions to problems which work in larger centres to their unique communities.

In order for this style of government to work, he said, MLAs have to come to true consensus.

"They have to say we will put aside our differences and support a policy," he said.

Anderson did not say whether he would prefer to see the party system, but said with it comes more accountability.

Today, he said, MLAs run as individuals and residents elect them on their platforms.

"But platforms change," he said.

With the party system, he said, at least there is a set of principles the politician must adhere to which electors can hold them accountable.

Anderson recalls the New Democratic Party ran a slate of candidates in 1999 and said the Yukon has had a party system for a number of years.

Industry Minister Bob McLeod told Yellowknifer in late November he had "to take the government line" when asked what his opinion was on the board merger plans.

"We call ourselves and our system of government consensus, but then why does cabinet act and behave like a majority government and think like a political party, throwing blind devotion behind the premier and the deputy premier?" Ramsay asked.

Roland said it has always been a point of contention about running for a cabinet position.

"It does impact your ability to speak freely about your constituency issues," he said.

"We've got to come up with a fix here because the way we are going here is - whether we like it or not - and I think other people have pointed this out, we are starting to look like a party system," Roland said in an interview.

The problem with having the present government running like the party system, said Roland, is cabinet has seven of the 19 seats and would be unable to vote anything through the house without support from at least a few regular MLAs.

Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy spoke earlier this session about how cabinet did not have to work at gaining real consensus. It could get policies passed by making commitments to just a couple of regular MLAs.

Kakfwi said there are not enough people in the North for party politics to work.

"Party politics is incredibly divisive. The North is a place we have tried to build as one of inclusion."

Roland acknowledged personalities on both sides of the table have had difficulties making consensus government work.

"We need to take the next step to function and get things done for the people of the Northwest Territories," he said.

Ramsay agreed.

"I don't think it's broken," he said. "I think it's the players.

"The respect factor has been thrown out the window on many occasions."

While debates over consensus government are not new, Roland said he believed the system can work.

"When difficult decisions have to be made, that is when it is the most difficult for members to have to make that big change," he said.

"It's proven itself like that in the past, and it's again proven itself today."

And communication may be improving. Yesterday, Abernethy thanked Roland for committing to involve the public and regular MLAs in NWT power rate reviews.

Last Wednesday offered a glimmer of what is possible under consensus government, as MLAs - both cabinet and regular members, from Yellowknife and small communities - voted together to urge Ottawa to partner with the territorial government on building a Mackenzie Valley Highway.

Kakfwi said many great things have been accomplished through consensus government, from the creation of Nunavut to selling Ottawa on the idea of self-government for aboriginal groups.

"We've done it time and again," he said. "It's not too late for this government and this legislature."