Thank you, Mr. Speaker. G K Chesterton was an English novelist who started his writing career about 100 years ago. One of the best lines he ever wrote was on the topic of law. He said, "We do not get good laws to restrain bad people, we get good people to restrain bad law." Mr. Speaker, old G K could have filled a whole book with these kinds of sayings if he were to visit the Northwest Territories. He could find in a jurisdiction of this size that we have over 4,100 pages of consolidated statutes and more arriving every session. That is one page of law for every three households, Mr. Speaker.
We have laws regarding CGAs, CMAs and CNAs. We have laws regarding dentists, dependents, domestic relations, documents and dogs. Mr. Speaker, those are only the statutes. We are buried up to our necks as well in regulations. I photocopied all the wildlife regulations from the NWT Gazette and it stacks four centimetres thick of paper.
Mr. Speaker, I want to be serious for a moment. We are moving ahead in an era that will see more political changes than we have ever seen before in the Northwest Territories. We will be seeing new forms of government emerge in Nunavut and Denendeh, and we will see a growing recognition of the inherent right of aboriginal people to govern themselves. We must make sure our hands are not tied by the type of legislation which has accumulated over the years. It takes a long time to amend all of this legislation, Mr. Speaker. We should be taking every precaution to make sure that when we pass laws in this House we are carefully considering the future changes that lie around the corner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause