Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Northern News Services staff reporter, who has covered the Legislative Assembly beat for the last several years, is being assigned to another part of the Northwest Territories. She is the striking blond lady, who sits in the crowded press gallery. I hope I won't be accused of using politically incorrect words to describe her because we have such great crowds here sometimes that you really have to use words like that, so that you know exactly who I am talking about.
Madam Speaker, it isn't unknown that Rankin Inlet, in some ways, is the middle of the Nunavut empire and there are expectations about the creation of lots of news because of its geographical location. I would like to remind Members that this is also the home constituency of a man who is being called, by various Members of the press, the Minister of Everything. It is to be expected that if you are the Minister of Everything, there is going to be all kinds of news that you are going to be able to report on.
Also, Madam Speaker, if you were a very high-profile Minister and there is lots of activity, there is also lots of work to be done by a very productive investigative reporter. Although this assignment, as I understand it, is only until the end of the summer, if there is lots of work there and there are lots of things going on, maybe even Mr. Sigvaldason would let her stay there for a longer period of time.
However, Madam Speaker, the point of my statement today is although from time to time members of the press annoy us and sometimes the public, members of the press also annoy their employer. So you end up getting it from both directions. However, I have found the lady to be, for the most part, on most occasions, fair. I know that when she settles in Rankin Inlet, that she will have no axe to grind and that she will report fairly on all the activities in that part of the world.
I would like to wish her well because we don't have a press club here and we don't get to talk to people that often, except when things of a nasty nature arise. I do wish her well in her new assignment.
---Applause