A fresh start and optimism for the 7th assembly 

In my last column, published just before this week’s territorial leadership forum, I expressed my regrets that the “goodwill and respect” required for the fragile consensus system of government to succeed were virtues which were in short supply in the last, sixth assembly.

I said this because, in my view, the process to select the premier in the previous assembly was polarized and unfortunately resulted in the exclusion of previous members of the executive council — or cabinet — whose experience and “corporate memory” could have been invaluable to a hard-working dedicated but rookie new premier, handicapped by no previous experience of his own in the territorial legislature and government.

These internal divisions weakened the sixth assembly’s executive council despite the best efforts of the premier. That was, unfortunately, reflected in a high rate of turnover in the cabinet and senior management, and discordant motions of censure and non-confidence that marred the government’s significant progress on big issues like housing, devolution and repatriation of elders.

My hope was that the spirit of goodwill and respect required for the consensus system to work at its best would emerge in the seventh assembly, which brought in a remarkable influx of fresh blood with 12 new MLAs, six incumbents defeated and the departures of seven others, including the former premier and minister of finance, who chose not to run again.

In addition to this infusion of new blood, the long hours of this week’s territorial leadership forum were a model of civility and collaboration in common cause which reflected the strength of the consensus system and augurs well for the new assembly.

On top of that, there’s fresh new energy in four new members of the executive council. The other half of the new eight-member cabinet is seasoned with experience, led by a premier who toughed it out in the challenging health portfolio for four years.

The leadership forum also showed its respect for experience by not excluding from cabinet worthy challenger to the premier and experienced senior minister David Akeeagok while former finance and justice minister George Hickes, who had been sidelined in the last assembly, was also brought back into cabinet.

But the most auspicious result of the recent leadership forum is a cabinet with an equal number of men and women! Nunavut has achieved gender parity in its executive council — the body which will day to day manage more than $3 billion each year in dealing with the challenges of governing our vast territory with its enormous economic potential and ever daunting negative social and health indicators.

It was the vision of John Amagoalik — considered by many the Father of Nunavut — and the leaders of the Nunavut Implementation Commission to be the first legislature in the world to mandate gender parity — a bold concept that was unfortunately  rejected by territorial voters in a plebiscite vote in 1997. But it has now been realized in the new seventh assembly’s cabinet!

The seventh legislative assembly is off to an auspicious new start.

The Hon. Dennis Patterson represented Nunavut in the Senate from 2008 to 2023. He was premier of the Northwest Territories from 1987 to 1991 and played a key role in the Nunavut land claim agreement.