Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. (Translation) I am going to speak in my own language. This is the very first time I am speaking to you in this new building. I want to speak to the opening of this new building that occurred yesterday. There were a lot of people that participated in the opening of the new building. They included the chiefs, elders, mayors, the president of the Metis Association, and a lot of officials from the municipalities. There were also many people from all across Canada, including Speakers from the provinces.
The Speaker for the federal government was here, the new Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien and his wife, as well as the Minister of Indian Affairs. They were all here to participate in the opening of the new Legislative Assembly. I would like to thank them for that. They said it was expensive to build this new facility. The media have talked about it. I imagine it was expensive, but past governments had to rent rooms and meeting places from such places as the Yellowknife Inn. I imagine that this building will pay for itself in the future. This is a facility that represents all the people in the Northwest Territories.
As MLAs, we are representing them and we are working on behalf of them. This building represents all of them. When we think of the future, every time they have meetings here, we will be working for the betterment of communities.
When we are representing the people, every time we have meetings, we set a certain amount of time. When we meet in this Legislative Assembly, we are working on behalf of all the people in the Northwest Territories, so we have to work for the betterment of the people when we are here. Thank you.