Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, would like to congratulate you on your election as Speaker. Mr. Chairman, at the present time, I would have a great deal of difficulty supporting the addition of a ninth seat to Cabinet. I know I've read the arguments about the workload and about the travel and so on, but my constituents say to me you're talking about spending more money on government when you've told us about the potential deficit and are telling us that we might have to look at cutting programs. A lot of them say we run our own businesses and never, when times get tough, do we add a new manager. That's the wrong time to be adding somebody to the management team.

I think that there is, perhaps, some merit to coming back and looking at this later, but at the present time I would have a great deal of difficulty supporting the addition of a ninth seat to Cabinet. If we are going to do it, it certainly has to happen within the current budget. But again, most of my constituents say if you can really add a ninth Cabinet seat within the current budget, you should be cutting the budget. You should be setting the example by cutting expenses.

I think, too, we have to take a look at the size of our jurisdiction. With 65,000 people, I know that the administration of the jurisdiction is complicated by the size and the way the population is spread around the Territory, but 65,000 people shouldn't require a huge number of managers to run the system; especially not if the managers are working in consultation with the 24 directors who sit around this table and are really offering a consensus style of government.

I think that other jurisdictions have set examples in the last few years. As the economic times get tougher, they've downsized their Cabinets. I think we have to take a look at whether or not that might be possible with the system of government we have. I think it's a good idea that we give the new Premier the opportunity to assign the portfolios, and let's take a look at this, perhaps, in a little while. I think Mr. Ootes's idea that we revisit it after the Premier and Cabinet have had a chance to see whether or not they can do the job adequately is a good one. So, Mr. Chairman, I would agree with that suggestion that we shouldn't look at adding the seat today but that we could certainly take a look at it at a future time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations on your election as Speaker. I am not in favour of a ninth position on Cabinet at this time. However, I would like to see this topic tabled at a future date for reconsideration, possibly at the mid- term review when we would better know the financial situation of this government and the workload placed on the Ministers and the Premier. In the past week or so, we've been told by our existing Premier that the workload for the Premier is very extensive and it gets heavier and heavier as more and more the Territories is recognized nationally. They believe this applies to the Ministers' position as well. As this Territory grows, there is a larger workload on the Ministers and on Cabinet as a whole.

I appreciate the fact that we are in a deficit position or a forecasted deficit position; however, I think we must be realistic in putting workloads on the Ministers and on the Premier; particularly the fact that in the past we've lost many Ministers due to stress associated with the positions. I really think that this topic should be reconsidered after the Premier, the Cabinet and this Legislative Assembly have had an opportunity to view the situation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations on your newly acquired position. We've discussed this issue over the last number of days, along with many others. But I go back further than that when I started out on this campaign to represent the people of Inuvik, and I'm sure many of us did as well. There is concern out there of cutting budgets, of people having to do more with less. We have people in our ridings who are worried about social assistance, health concerns, education. At this level, we come from each of our different ridings and I'm sure we've all heard similar stories and concerns: that if the rest of our departments that are under our control have to do more with less, then I believe we should be leading by example.

We're in a time when money is longer running and overflowing from our cup. Instead we are looking elsewhere for money, we don't have any more, we cannot give away any more. There has been mention of doing this within our existing budget. If we can take this money -- which we've heard from $250,000 to $500,000 -- if we can do this within the existing budget, I don't believe we should try to put another position in. If that money can be cut, let's take it out of the budget as we're telling the rest of the departments to do: to take money from their budgets. We have to lead by example. We're chosen by the people of the NWT to do the right thing. Are we doing the right thing by saying yes, it's very hard up here, the stress is high, we need more people on the top?

I, myself, made comments during my campaign that we're top heavy as is. If we're seen as creating more of this, it goes against what I stand for. I don't have to say that looking again at this, in my mind, will change anything. We're in the days of reduction, doing more with less. I believe that's the example we should lead by.

As for the workload, we all knew when we jumped into the ring that we would put the rest of our lives on hold for the sake of the people of the NWT. If we didn't know that, then we're going to have a rude awakening.

I think that for those who are interested in running for Cabinet -- I've heard a lot of talk about how busy it is and the stress that comes with it, as there is running for MLA -- if you want to make the next step forward, then you must be aware that by taking that next step you are also talking an increased workload and what comes with that is the extra stress. If you're in touch with your constituents in your community and they say to you that they agree with you to run for Cabinet and also agree that you will spend less time in your own riding, if the concern of time in your own riding comes up, I believe that would be dealt with by being in touch with your own riding, your own community, the people who put you here. If they want to see you in a Cabinet position, then by all means put your name forward. As for mine, I was told they want to see me.

I'm not at all in favour of creating a ninth position now or in the future. If we can justify .it within our own dollars, let's take those dollars. If we can do it within our own dollars, that means we can cut that much money out of our existing budget right here. It doesn't matter to me, if this ninth position was to be created, which side it would come from. Let's get real, let's face the facts. We don't have that kind of money and whatever side you put it on, we're still going to come up shy $500,000 or more.

I think it is time we lead by example. We were ·elected by the people of our communities to make a decision on their behalf at this position here. I've heard throughout my campaign that they're concerned about their education, their health and how they live. I believe if we lead by example, we're helping them and their cause back home to have a little better life, lo have a little better education and to have a better health system. Instead of cutting from those, if we can raise this position, let's lake that money instead and cut here. Let's save the people back home from any more of the pain and the hurt that they'll have to suffer in the upcoming years. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also wish to offer my congratulations on your election to this position again.

Initially, I was somewhat supportive of the concept of the addition of a ninth seat to Cabinet, provided that it was funded out of existing resources allocated for Cabinet. At face value, the ninth position seemed to have merit in terms of the distribution of the workload. But after listening to the Members here this morning, my understanding of the timing of this may not be right with division coming up and an uneven number of Cabinet seats; there will be more from one side than the other. I think that we want to keep this process leading up to division fair and equitable. We don't want either side to be under the impression or give the perception to the two regions that this process won't be fair and that there will be more power on one side than the other.

So in deference to that concern, I am willing to say that I will not support the addition of a ninth seat at this time. I am very hopeful that the new committee structure that is being proposed will increase the involvement of ordinary Members through their activity on the committees and that this will assist the Ministers in fulfilling their roles and make their jobs a little easier.

I have also heard over the past week that this government is going to try to avoid getting into the kind of adversarial stances that took place in the last government. Hopefully, if that is the case, we won't have Ministers having to take up so much of their time and energy addressing those kinds of concerns. That will also, hopefully, lessen their stress level and workload.

At this time, I would have to say that I believe we can conduct the business of the government with the existing eight Cabinet positions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At this time, I would like to congratulate you on your election as our Speaker. My view with regard to this subject matter is I do not support the ninth Cabinet Minister based on the existing financial problems we are presently under with regard to the deficit.

I have seen how the government has amalgamated departments to downsize the previous structure. We had 17 departments and now we are down to 11. If we are talking about eight Cabinet Ministers, I believe that by allocating portfolios based on that number, that workload should be workable with the existing structure.

The other argument I have is during the campaign, there was a lot of people out there who are hurting, especially from the Mackenzie Delta, where we have a very serious social problem with regard to the unemployment. The economics of the region isn't there. We don't have an industry like we had in the past such as the oil and gas industry or mining.

I also believe with the deficit, we are going to have to make some major cuts in other areas and will have to look at all the areas in government such as the Legislature, government bureaucracy and the cost of administering the government to the people. We have to set an example. We need to look at the existing resources we have and I don't see that we have it within the budget. So, at this time, I would like to state that I do not support the ninth seat for Cabinet. Thank you.