Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the motion proposed by my colleague, I fully support his endeavours to lower the age of the youth concerning territorial elections. I certainly believe that many of the youth in today's society are becoming more aware of the political development of the North and want to participate more with regard to political development. I think I can give you some examples. As we recognize, the commission that is touring the Territories, is getting a lot of participation and more comments from the youth than they had initially anticipated. You can certainly tell that the interest is out there.

I know and have observed through the campaign period that there are many youth that do want to know, that do want to be involved and want to find a way to get involved, even though they are not eligible to vote. They were very interested in the process. I want to indicate that through my campaign period there were a lot more requests from the schools to explain the process and why we were running, starting at a very young age. People are becoming more aware; the youth are becoming more interested and aware; and I believe that if we can give them opportunities to vote, if they show an interest -- and they are showing an interest --I think it is only fair.

Various Responsibilities Youth Can Undertake Before Present Voting age

If we look in the Territories at what youth can do at the age of 18, we all know that many, even young individuals, can receive a social insurance number. At 16 years of age, they can get married even without the permission of their parents, and yet we are depriving them of the right to vote. You can vote in other jurisdictions. There are other jurisdictions that allow youth to vote, but when you look at youth in the Territories, even at 16 years of age, they are allowed to partake in different responsibilities in our society. They are able to take, hold and participate with certain privileges in our society.

Take, for example, obtaining a driver's licence. They are eligible to obtain a driver's licence at the age of 16. They do take on certain responsibilities at a young age.

Once students reach the age of 16, they can, if they so wish -- and it is very difficult to stop them -- drop out of school. I believe that students are now recognizing the consequences of dropping out of school. Certainly, as an MLA, I would encourage every student to get as much education as they can.

These are the types of decisions that youth can make when they are at the early age of even 16. There are many other responsibilities, as I have stated. I will not go into detail with many of them, but I know that youth are willing to take on certain responsibilities and they are willing to participate now more readily and want full participation within our society, and I think it is only fair to give them that opportunity. Therefore, I would request the Members to give serious consideration to lowering the territorial voting age to 18 from 19. Thank you.