RJ Simpson, Kieron Testart, Shane Thompson and Caroline Wawzonek made their pitches to become the next NWT premier on Thursday.
The premier will be chosen by a secret ballot of MLAs on Thursday next week, December 7.
Simpson, Testart, Thompson and Wawzonek are the four people who rose to accept nomination for the role. Lesa Semmler, who said she had been considering a run, ultimately did not let her name stand.
Simpson pitched a “50-year vision” for the NWT in a speech grounded in what he felt were the signature achievements of his four years as a minister: room for Indigenous co-development and the prioritization of residents’ needs.
“We’re trying to do too many things and as a result, we’re only doing them halfway,” he said. “We need to go back to the basics. If we want to tackle the major issues, we need to focus our efforts and devote adequate staff and resources to those ends.”
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Testart proposed a series of ambitious structural changes to NWT governance, ranging from turning some regular MLAs into “associate ministers” to creating an Indigenous Senate for the territory. He pledged to dissolve the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, with a department focused on public safety and emergency preparedness part of its replacement.
Stating that he “personally knows” Justin Trudeau, Testart said he would “adopt a Team NWT approach where the premier will lead missions to Ottawa, provinces and international destinations in concert with Indigenous leaders.”
Thompson, speaking third, cast himself as the candidate best-positioned to represent the territory’s smaller communities, saying he was running for premier at the recommendation of an Elders’ council he had consulted.
While he advocated for splitting the Department of Health and Social Services, Thompson focused on his interpersonal abilities and relations with other MLAs. “I’m committed to reaching out to each member individually, especially when work is being done that has a potential impact on your constituents,” he told them. “It’s about hearing from different voices directly.”
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
Wawzonek, the last to speak, said she would restore a vision to the NWT’s government – and an ability to act on that vision.
Addressing her status as a Yellowknife MLA seeking a job held by Yellowknife MLAs since 2011, she said: “”I am conscious of the rift that exists already between Yellowknife and small communities. I certainly don’t want it to get worse. I hope that we can find a way to move forward and make it better, because politics in the Northwest Territories is founded on consensus, and that in turn requires relationships, discussion, trust and respect.”
There will be a Q&A with each candidate a week from now before MLAs cast their votes. (Some people say this whole process could be tweaked to do a better job of setting up the government for success.)
On this page, we brought you live text updates – you can read more from each speech as it happened below. You can also watch video of the speeches.
In an unscientific poll after this month’s election, the majority of around 700 respondents wanted either Simpson or Wawzonek to lead the NWT.
But the considerations stretch well beyond a popularity contest. MLAs are also choosing the person they think has the best ability to unite cabinet (and the wider group of 19 MLAs), work well with federal, municipal and Indigenous governments, and sell a vision for the territory’s future to the public and the wider world.
That may or may not be the person voters would prefer.
That's it. There'll be no more formal, public progress until Thursday, December 7, when the candidates go through a Q&A before a secret ballot. That day, we'll know which one is the NWT's new premier.
Thanks for following along. We'll be back for more of the same next week.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
As a last observation, Wawzonek says her approach made it easier for cabinet and regular MLAs to work together over the past four years.
She praises the "bench strength" of the 20th Assembly and, on the point of cruising past the 20-minute mark, wraps up.
Wawzonek wants to move red tape reduction and integrated case management – two initiatives that the public has, generally speaking, said it appreciates – into the premier's office.
Beginning to conclude, and conscious that she's a Yellowknife candidate for a role occupied by Yellowknife representatives since 2011, she says: "I am conscious of the rift that exists already between Yellowknife and small communities. I certainly don't want it to get worse. I hope that we can find a way to move forward and make it better, because politics in the Northwest Territories is founded on consensus, and that in turn requires relationships, discussion, trust and respect."
Wawzonek's speech is the most measured, in terms of pace, of any we've heard. (Measured can be a good or a bad thing, depending on what you're looking for.)
If the NWT government were a boat, the Simpson speech was about how boats should look in 50 years. Testart wants to redesign the boat. Thompson promised to be a good captain of the boat. And Wawzonek is advocating for the boat to be nudged in a slightly different direction.
"We are seriously in need of trust in our relationships with indigenous governments," Wawzonek says. "Of course we should be going to Ottawa together. This seems obvious to me, and it seems simple, but it is not happening."
Wawzonek: "I want to acknowledge the addictions crisis that is gripping our communities. We have been hearing about it all week. Many of us have been hearing about it for the campaign. We need to acknowledge it, it needs to start from the top."
She's also noting her work on the GNWT's MMIWG action plan. She says her values are to face problems honestly, build trust, never forget who you serve, and remain accountable.
Wawzonek trumpets her involvement in launching government renewal, the thorough (and ongoing, years after its launch) scrutiny of what each department actually does.
She says she also got on top of the NWT's capital budget "not a moment too soon," given 2023's wildfire season.
Wawzonek says she wants a better vision and she wants that translated into action.
"The reputation of an inability to translate government into practical and timely change must end. The assembly voices our political priorities, and the premier's office ought to be translating and driving that vision into the government," she says.
"We can do a much better job of sharing information with Indigenous governments, with the committees, MLAs, with the public That will help build trust in our processes. We will not be afraid of sharing information, even in a 24-hour news cycle."
The premier "is responsible to put forward a sense of vision about who we are to the rest of Canada and on the world stage," says Wawzonek.
"Just as the horizon is always changing, in my view our vision towards that future horizon should also be capable of change. But we do need to at least be looking at the horizon."
