Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would first like to offer my congratulations on your elevation to the lofty post of Speaker.

We spent the last week listening to the former Finance Minister discussing budgets, and such, in Caucus. To my mind, we have also discussed the workload and expectations of MLAs and Ministers. I would think that there probably is justification for a ninth seat. The only way I would be in a position to support that is if it came from within existing resources. As a government, we will be putting forward a package of restraint measures, changes and agenda items we want addressed. One of those issues was going to be MLAs' pay and benefits and Ministers' pay and benefits. It would seem to me, like the pay and benefits, where the decision was made make it part of the package, it may be worth our while to list this as an item in our overall package we're going to present to the people. Let's look at the numbers. In addition to funding it from within, we may have to in fact initiate cuts as well at this level if our restraint measures and budget measures are to have any kind of credibility with the people we serve. So my suggestion would be that it's a worthwhile suggestion to explore, but we should set a very short time frame and put it into the other package of information that we're going to be putting forward to the House to set direction for this government, and to see if it is affordable, where that money would come from and where we have room to move, if any. Perception and optics are going to be very important here as well so that we aren't perceived to be creating jobs for ourselves or expanding the bureaucracy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.