Northwest territories.

• Author: Mercer, Tim
• Position: Legislative Reports

The election for the 15th Legislative Assembly was held in November 2003. The NWT's consensus style of government is such that all Members are elected as independent Members and are subjected to an orientation period prior to choosing a Premier and Cabinet Ministers to form the government. For the 15th Assembly, this orientation period lasted from December 4, 2003 to the opening of the first session on December 11, 2003 and included two days of administrative orientation, three days of procedural and socio-economic familiarization, a two-day Territorial Leadership Committee to elect the Speaker, Premier and Cabinet, a swearing in ceremony and a quick two-day session followed by prorogation.

Both, the Speaker, David Krutko, and the Premier, Joe Handley, were acclaimed to their respective offices. In keeping with recent practice, the Leadership Committee elected two Cabinet Members from each of the northern, Yellowknife and southern constituencies. The secret ballot elections were settled on the first ballot for the northern and Yellowknife constituencies with a second ballot required for the south.

One unique feature of consensus government is the absence of the political party platforms that would ordinarily give a new government a head start on its strategic planning following an election. The result is that setting the agenda for a new NWT Assembly can only begin after the election, and typically includes the entire Caucus.

The 15th Assembly's strategic planning began at the very first meeting of Caucus two weeks after the election. Each Member was given an opportunity to introduce themselves, and speak for ten minutes. Suggested topics, for example, "Why did you run for office?", were sent to Members in advance to help them prepare their comments. Significantly, this meeting took place before the selection of the Speaker and Cabinet Members, so that all 19 Members were able to speak freely and independently. Staff attendance was restricted to the Clerk and the Special Advisor to the Speaker, which contributed to the openness of the speeches.

A consensus emerged at the first meeting of Caucus that other northern governments should have a voice in setting the agenda for the 15th Assembly. This resulted in an historic gathering of aboriginal leaders, municipal government leaders and the 19 MLAs hosted by the K'atl'odeeche First Nation on the Hay River Dene Reserve. The gathering, which became known as the Circle of Northern Leaders, was held over three days in April 2004. In order to ensure that all governments were treated as full participants, the overall planning for the meeting was overseen by a Steering Committee with representatives from aboriginal and municipal governments, the Legislative Assembly, and the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Committee selected two independent...