Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, congratulations on your election as Speaker. I've heard over the last number of days how busy the Ministers are and the very difficult job they have to perform their duties and, mostly from a time frame side, that they are under tremendous stress in these positions and I believe that. I've spoken enough to Ministers in the past government to understand that, and the pressures of their jobs are, I'm sure, quite incredible. So I think it is important that we recognize the difficult position that they're in. They also are Ministers who have constituencies that they must pay attention to. I am very lucky here in Yellowknife to be able to leave the Legislative Assembly and within five minutes I'm home; others don't have the luxury of that. They have to get in an airplane and travel for perhaps a day at a time to get to their home community, then to service their constituents. In the case of Ministers, that's a tremendous workload.

In addition, I think that some Ministers have a great number of responsibilities and portfolios, more so perhaps than others. That is as it is, and those Ministers are capable of doing that but it adds to their stress level because of the amount of decisions that they have to make, the frequency of meetings that they have to attend.

The upcoming Ministers will have a great challenge ahead of them as well with the deficit the way it is at $100 million, we understand, projected for next year; division coming in three and a half years; the workload is going to be tremendou.s I feel that we have a role to play in that as ordinary Members, and perhaps that's an area we should look at: where we, as ordinary Memb ers, can share more of that load. It will also give us a better opportunity to be part of the decision-making process. I don't have the ready answers to how to do that, but I think it has to be some food for thought.

My major concern, however, is the cost factor. I understand, like some Members, that this could cost $200,000, $300,000, I don't know for sure, and over a four-year period this does translate into a lot of money. With the deficit that we are facing here over the next couple of years, l think it is important to show and to in actual fact demonstrate to the public that we also are prepared to cut costs.

So I am tom about which way to go. I recognize the need for people to have a proper workload level but,on theother hand, I also recognize the need for us to be responsible in this situation to the public. That public is demanding that we not have a deficit situation; they do not want it. I feel that perhaps what we need to do is balance this and perhaps revisit this situation in a short while, rather than making a decision today and saying we are going to add a Minister. I feel that if we give it a bit of time, several months perhaps, that we could come back to this Legislature and see how the distribution of Cabinet posts has been made to see how other Members of the Cabinet are carrying the workload and ii they're comfortable with that. I say that because of the financial restraints. We cannot, in all good conscience, demand that the public service, that we go into the administration and demand cuts here, there and everywhere, and then we don't demonstrate that ourselves here.

So as I mentioned, I'm tom. I understand and appreciate the concern that potential Ministers have with whether they can perform their jobs. And I sympathize with the fact that they have to travel great distances to visit their communities for responsibilities of constituency duties. I am lucky and I appreciate that. Thank you very much.