Secret ballot for mid-term review
MLAs will vote next year on cabinet ministers' performance but result of the private vote will be non-binding
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, October 24, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Despite claiming they want to see more transparency from government, regular MLAs in the current 18th assembly have voted to have next year's mid-term review, which includes confidence votes on cabinet ministers, done by a secret ballot.
This time next year, for the first time since the 12th legislative assembly, a mid-term review with be held inside the assembly.
On Oct. 20, all 11 regular members voted in favour of the standing committee on rules and procedure's report on exactly what the review will look like. All seven cabinet ministers, and the premier, abstained from voting on the report.
Essentially what will happen during the review next fall is that the premier and his ministers will make speeches in the house defending their records and what they have done to pursue the initiatives laid out in the government's mandate.
Then all MLAs, regular members and cabinet, will vote on whether they have confidence in a given minister. The vote is non-binding, meaning that even if a minister does not survive a confidence vote - he or she would not automatically be booted from cabinet.
The chair of the rules and procedures committee, Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly said that after much deliberation, the committee felt that a secret ballot would be best.
"We voted cabinet in through the process of a secret ballot. We felt that was an appropriate way to also carry out the mid-term review," O'Reilly said.
"We have the opportunity any day the house is sitting to remove a minister in public. That's not with this mid-term review process is about. It's about making sure we are steering the ship in the right direction. At the end of the day we all have to work together. To have a public vote of confidence ... is not a good way to preserve working relationships."
The actual vote totals will not be announced publicly but after the vote, the chair of the review committee will state whether the minister has the confidence of the members or not, O'Reilly said.
He added if there is a non-confidence vote, then one of three things can happen - because the vote is non-binding - the first option for a minister who has lost the confidence of the house, is to do nothing at all.
"Or the minister might decide of his or her own accord to resign or they could be a motion brought forward ... in the house to publicly remove a minister," O'Reilly said.
He added that he had hoped that the entire house would have voted to accept the review report because of all the hard work that went into it, but he respects cabinet's right to abstain from voting on it.
On Oct. 18, Louis Sebert, minister for public engagement and transparency, said that the review is redundant and that the ministers' performances are already evaluated through the day-to-day operation of government.
"Members of (cabinet) are held to account for their performance in achieving the goals of the mandate and in the management of their respective departments through several means," Sebert said.
"Including appearances before standing committees in business plans, legislative reviews and, at request, on specific issues of concern (via) oral hearings and written questions, main estimates and review in committee of the whole."
Government House Leader Glen Abernethy, was the only cabinet minister who spoke about the mid-term review report on the day of the vote. Like Sebert, he also had problems with it.
"Cabinet is not afraid of being judged. We believe that we are already making progress and will have made even more progress by next fall. We are confident that we could stand on our record collectively as well as individually," Abernethy said.
"But we do want to make sure that we are being judged on the basis of whether or not we have done the things that we said we would do, specifically, the commitments all MLAs agreed to within our mandate."
A review of the progress of the standing committees, made up of regular MLAs, will also be part of the review process.
It will be held in the assembly but will resemble committee of the whole.
That means that heckling and thumping on desks will not be allowed during the review.
