What can the 18th Assembly's votes on motions tell us about strategy?

Editor's note: As part of our 2019 N.W.T. election coverage, David Wasylciw, data geek and founder of OpenNWT, is taking a look at the last Legislative Assembly – breaking down what the numbers tell us about how our government and our politicians work. Most importantly, he explains what this means for you, the voter, ahead of the election on Oct. 1. 

In his third instalment, David looks at how MLAs voted on motions, and how the use of motions over the past four years dictated a shift in strategy from the assembly preceding it.

In the second part of this series, we examined recorded votes related to bills — the majority of recorded votes in the 18th Assembly. Today, we'll look at recorded votes on motions.

Motions are different than bills. Bills turn into laws once passed, while motions reflect the will of the assembly. 

For example, in the last assembly, motions ranged from appointing the premier and cabinet to directing changes to junior kindergarten and even dissolving the assembly (on the last day). Since motions have such wide-ranging topics, they are often the subject of more debate and discussion in the House than bills. At the same time, when a motion directs the government to do something, the standard practice is for Cabinet to abstain and not vote rather than voting against.

The 20 recorded votes that we examined for this piece were on a wide range of topics and include:

• Three motions to revoke cabinet appointments (Louis Sebert, Glen Abernethy, and Wally Schumann),
• The establishment of the new mid-term review process,
• Two changes to the MLA code of conduct,
• Direction to the government to ban smoking in vehicles with minors,
• Direction to the government to continue the "A New Day" men's healing program and the on-going program evaluation, and
• An apology to the YKDFN related to damages resulting from Giant Mine.

Now, to the numbers. 

In the last assembly, there were just under 90 motions, although we will examine only the 20 with recorded votes. That's less than the 17th Assembly, which had just about 125 motions, 42 with recorded votes. 

Of the 20 recorded votes this time around, 15 were successfully passed and five were defeated. Most of the time, all MLAs were present for these votes, although both Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli and Minister of Health and Social Services Glen Abernethy missed four of the votes. 

Missing a vote could mean anything from they were absent for other duties that day or due to an illness, or even being there but having to leave the chamber and missing the vote.

• ANALYSIS | 18th Assembly voting records on bills show patterns of approval, and dissent
• The N.W.T. election is Oct. 1. Follow all our coverage here.

As a group, cabinet abstained from voting three times. Ministers voted against five motions —  three of which were the motions to revoke cabinet appointments — and all of those were, in the end, defeated. 

Similar to voting on bills, both Nunakput MLA Herb Nakimayak and Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely had zero dissenting votes, always voting with the majority — and always voting with cabinet — to either pass or defeat the motion. 

Other MLAs had a range of dissenting votes, with the highest number (five) being made by both Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart and Nahendeh MLA Shane Thompson.

A shift in strategy?

But who was doing all of the work introducing these motions with recorded votes? 

The largest number — two and a half times the amount of anyone else — was Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green, introducing five. Nearly all of her motions passed, and only one — a motion to enter the territorial government into binding arbitration with the Union of Northern Workers to avoid a scheduled strike — was defeated. 

The other four defeated motions were motions to remove Wally Schumann, Louis Sebert, and Glen Abernethy from cabinet — introduced by Kieron Testart, Tom Beaulieu, and Shane Thompson respectively — and a motion to request a special audit of the Inuvik-to-Tuktoyaktuk Highway project by the Auditor General, introduced by Testart.

Now, how does all of this compare to the previous assembly? Well, for starters, there were fewer motions overall, and significantly fewer recorded votes.

Individual MLAs in the previous government had some very active members, who introduced more than twice as many motions as any individual MLA in the 18th Assembly.

Former Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley introduced 14 of the 17th Assembly's motions with recorded votes, and former Sahtu MLA Norman Yakelya was responsible for another seven. The other former Yellowknife MLAs all introduced four or five motions each. Nearly a third of the motions introduced by Mr. Bromley were defeated, but they kept going. 

• ANALYSIS | The 18th Assembly did a lot, but did it differently, numbers show
• OPINION | Candidates promise change, but who's ready to fight for it?

Notably, of the 42 motions, cabinet generally abstained, with some members abstaining from as many as 29 of the votes.

The biggest differences between the two assemblies seem to be that aside from sheer volume, the way MLAs worked together and provided direction to cabinet was different. Generally, MLAs use motions as a tool to provide direction to government. Perhaps, with the creation of the much discussed mandate document, MLAs in the 18th Assembly found this less necessary. 

It's also important to note that the MLAs that were the most active in these areas in the 17th Assembly all either retired or were defeated. That could indicate a shift in strategy, based on who remained in the assembly.

While we only examined recorded votes — since they have details as to how people voted — there were a lot of other votes in the assembly, and for the most part, they were successful ones. 

Both the 18th and 17th Assemblies passed 95 per cent of the votes that were taken. Looking at the overall number, there's a fair bit of consensus. It's only when you dig into the details that other patterns emerge.