I had my hand up before you went into comments. This legislation was denied in the last Legislative Assembly and the suggestion is that the government give this a very high priority. I was looking at and taking note of the travels that went on around the Northwest Territories, and I would very much like to say that I did not see, or it was not indicated in the turn out of the community representation, that the general public of the Northwest Territories had a high interest in this area. In one community a person was walking along the road, was not prepared and talked to two or three people into going to the meeting and they were the only people who showed up.
It seems to me that although this could be explored, I think the level of priority which is put onto it is a level of priority by a few people who advocated it before and a few people who advocate it in this House right now. This government has spent a great deal of time trying to give information and trying to respond to the Legislative Assembly Members, and this would be another body of people who we would have to respond to.
We only have about 60,000 people in the Northwest Territories. I could see something like this in a larger jurisdiction, but every day for the past year we have faced Members of this Legislative Assembly plus committee meetings in the communities which have been carried out, and we have provided a great deal of information. However, I do not hear any human cry out there that people are wanting us to place a priority on this legislation. I see a priority on many things concerning health, social services, education and program delivery, but I do not see people out there wanting anything but more community support to get the job done. If I was putting a priority on delivering some support to community, it would be community development, to help people get to the growth point where they want to be. To me, this is another level of bureaucracy which the government has to feed. It takes time and effort to make sure that the information is provided, and it seems to me people want to hear what Members of this Legislative Assembly become concerned about. It is the area of privacy, where people want to be able to dig, and I do not know how far you go in a small jurisdiction like the Northwest Territories.
I look at the people who showed up at these community meetings and it is not anyone who has not been there before. So, the whole process which we had before did not instigate other people or new people to show up at those community hearings, which were done at a great deal of personal time by MLAs on the committee and personal expenditure by this Legislative Assembly and government. I cannot see that you have an argument to say the people of the Northwest Territories are crying to have us put this on a priority list, with all the other things we are doing. If there is any evidence that I have missed, I will take note of it, although I have followed the work and I have followed the diligent way that the committee tried to bring people out and bring the interest level up, but it just did not happen, it did not fly. You are putting a priority in an area which will take a great deal of time unless we do it quick and dirty, but I do not see where the word "priority" can be demonstrated with all the work that was done and the people who showed up. It does not give us that message.