Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thought long and hard about this, because of course in most circumstances we would want to take advantage of the expertise of a resident in the NWT. However, the high expectations on the part of the stakeholders in the area of mining safety was that the new process to be put in place would be effective if the chairman was independent, and that led me to feel that any possible candidates from the NWT, although they would bring an element of local knowledge -- and a very important element of local knowledge -- to the committee, might be seen as coming to the committee with some kind of a bias, depending on their previous experience in one sector or another in the NWT.
So, Mr. Speaker, it was my judgment that in order to ensure objectivity and no one being involved that had an axe to grind, as it were, in this very controversial and sensitive area, that the advantages of appointing a neutral person from outside the Territories, especially with recent experience in developing progressive mine safety legislation in another jurisdiction, would outweigh the disadvantage of not having a Northerner as chair of this committee. It was a judgment call on my part, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.