Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When we discuss the ninth seat, I think it would be important to make a number of observations and points. One of the observations I want to make is that in the last eight years that I've served on Cabinet, I have noticed, and I think the public has as well, that certain Ministers tend to be able -- also have the confidence of the Premier -- to take on more portfolios than others. So you would have a Minister, for instance, that would have two, three, four portfolios and you would have a Minister with one.

You also had on occasion, Ministers who, due to lack of experience, took on portfolios that tended to lead them into very complex and sometimes politically difficult, if not impossible, issues to deal with, and it has lead to the demise of some.

One of the points I wanted to make is that I think because we are a government that runs on consensus and we need to share the work more and more, I believe that we should consider the fact that by having an increased number of Ministers we will make it possible to make the distribution of portfolios more equitable; it would allow for more new MLAs, for instance, to gain experience as Ministers. We would certainly share the travel, which is again often unevenly distributed.

Last year, I travelled over 100 days of the year. I have known Ministers in the past who, because of their portfolios, did not travel at all, very frequently. Other Ministers, particularly Ministers like Ministers of Education, were compelled to try to reach every community -- over 70 of them in the Northwest Territories -- over a two to three year period. Even that is a very daunting task. Travel for some of us is part of our political life. For instance, I come from the Sahtu where there are five communities to visit. Last year, I spent 65 of my travelling days in the Sahtu and it still wasn't enough for my constituents. That means on the average, I spend one full working week a month in my constituency and it's still not enough.

An MLA from Yellowknife, on the other hand, drives home into his constituency every day. So there aren't the same demands. I know it would be to my political detriment, for instance, if I became a Minister of Education again because I would be compelled to travel. There are communities to visit, schools to see and students to visit all across the Northwest Territories. I would also be compelled to try to meet the needs of my constituents. The demands on me personally would be very different from that of a Yellowknife MLA. That is one of the reasons that I had felt supportive of the suggestion that we have a ninth seat. Like everyone else, I have expressed concerns about the additional costs that that would present, but it is my view that we can cut costs within the budget of the Legislative Assembly and we can try very hard to do it within existing resources, even within the parameters of having to cut the overall budget. With an additional workload, those people who are not interested in being Ministers because of the daunting workload, the tremendous stress and because of the high demands of constant travel, those people would be more encouraged to consider it, should we increase the number of Ministers. Certainly it would make Ministers share their workload a lot more and the travel commitments that are often made. As Ministers, we try to support one another to meet commitments that are made, so we stand in for each other on occasion.

As I have said before the stress of being a Minister is tremendous. I don't know how else to describe it. You don't know what it is until it hits you. It is relentless. It has done Ministers in before and will continue to do so. It is my view that we can provide for a ninth seat; the work facing us of trying to meet the challenge of the deficit, trying to keep Nunavut and division alive on the agenda of the federal government and prepare ourselves to meet that goal is a huge new commitment. We have three and a half years to do it. I believe that an additional Minister will certainly help us meet the workload and keep the people of the Northwest Territories onside in the work we have to do. Those are the comments I wanted to offer on this issue. Thank you.