Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a classic case of something which was very simple in the last Assembly, which was confused. When Mr. Gargan had a bill that everyone was happy about, the ordinary Members were happy about then the government said we could make it better than that by including an additional function. It was not the ordinary Members' initiative to propose an ombudsman. That, in fact, came from the government because it would involve money. You, as an ordinary Member, cannot advance a bill where there has to be an involvement of expenditures like that. The bill that was presented as a private Member's bill, did not involve the creation of a bureaucracy at all. It was the government's initiative that moved this piece of legislation to make it a more complex thing to include other functions such as an ombudsman. I would also like to point out that when Mr. Whitford made his motion, there was no mention of an ombudsman in that motion. All that motion said was that we had to proceed with the establishment of the right of access by the public to information held by government institutions. It was at that point that the Premier interjected and said I do not want to discuss this motion until I can have an opportunity to discuss the whole issue surrounding it. It was for that reason that Mr. Whitford withdrew the motion. The big issue for Members of the Assembly, right from the last Assembly where it was the major issue in the last election, at least from my experience, and I agree with Mr. Dent's analysis, is that the public assumes we are getting on with it and making sure that we are on the right track. Those people who felt we were not on the right track, I suppose stayed home and said, "I do not have to worry about this because we have had the commitment."

The commitment could never have been put more accurately and properly than those used by the Premier herself during the leadership debate. I will read it to you. "Mr. Chairman, there is a growing demand by the public for greater accountability and openness in government. People are seeking more information from government about how and why decisions are made. They want to be assured their concerns will be listened to when legislation comes before committees. These feelings have been expressed from all regions of the territories, and as a result one of the first pieces of legislation which will have to be introduced and passed quite appropriately by the Legislative Assembly is access to information." Those are her words, and it was on that basis that she now leads this government. She has already said that would be her first priority, and we are not talking about an ombudsman, we are talking about access to information. That is all there is in the motion which Mr. Whitford read. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.