Backbench MLAs threaten to vote out N.W.T. premier, cabinet

Northwest Territories MLAs have threatened to vote Premier Floyd Roland and his ministers out of cabinet.

Speaking at the start of a new legislative session Wednesday, Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen announced she will introduce a motion of no-confidence in Roland and his six cabinet ministers for debate and a vote Friday.

Groenewegen's motion, seconded by Tu Nedhe MLA Tom Beaulieu, was made on behalf of all 11 non-cabinet members, also known as regular MLAs.

Outside the assembly, Groenewegen told CBC News that communication has broken down between cabinet and regular members, and she doesn't thinkthe situation can be fixed.

She added that while some may argue the current economic climate may make this the worst possible time to change the territory's premier and cabinet, she believes this is the best time because the assembly has only been through 16 months of its mandate.

All 19 MLAs in the current N.W.T. assembly were elected in October 2007. As part of the territory's consensus style of government, MLAs choose the premier and cabinet among their peers after they are elected.

And as members choose their premier and cabinet members, they can also vote to remove them from cabinet.

Regular MLAs have criticized the government for recent decisions, ranging from changes to extended health-care benefits to a $34-million bailout loan for aviation company Discovery Air.

"The government had better start listening to us. Otherwise, you know, there'll be a number of them that won't be in cabinet," Yellowknife Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay told CBC News earlier this week.

"Maybe the whole cabinet will come out. Who knows?"

Budget to be delivered Thursday

Theimminentshowdownbetween regular MLAs and cabinet adds to what was already shaping up tobe a busy budget session.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger will present a budget that he has said will include "tough decisions" about programs and spending in light of the current economic recession.

"I expect there will be some feistiness, as we've had every session, on some ofthe decisions that we've made around our programs," Roland said Tuesday.

"The issue of a mid-term review came up during our last sitting here in the house, and that will come up again."

Last month, Yellowknife Great Slave MLA Glen Abernethy threatened to put forward a motion ofno-confidence in Health Minister Sandy Lee over planned changes to extended health coverage for non-aboriginal seniors.

Pressure from seniors and their supporters prompted Lee to announce Monday that she would postpone implementation of those changes from April 1 to Sept. 1.

Ramsay has recently criticized Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger about a loan to Discovery Air, suggesting that awarding the loan under the N.W.T. Opportunities Fund may have been politically motivated.

MLAs have also been critical of cabinet for leaving them out of major decisions, such as a move last year to proceed with building the controversial Deh Cho Bridge over the Mackenzie River and Roland's offer to Prime Minister Stephen Harper for resource royalties.

'Hands off the health benefits'

Meanwhile, seniors in the territory claimed a partial victory in their battle to keep their extended health-care benefits, but many said they want the government to go further.

"I think that people who elected these MLAs are speaking loud and clear hands off the health benefits," said David Wind of the Yellowknife Seniors' Society.

Health officials wanted to change the extended care policy so that seniors would have to pass an income means test in order to have the costs of prescription drugs, glasses and dental work covered by the government.

That coverage provided under the current policy would no longer be provided to those who do not pass the means test.

Government officials have said they want to introduce new health programs to help N.W.T. residents who cannot afford supplementary health-care costs.

"The stated goal of the programs was to provide benefits to working poor families, and we believe that's a very worthy goal," said Ben McDonald of the Yellowknife-based social justice group Alternatives North.

"But you don't achieve that by cutting benefits to people who are already getting them," he added.