Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to congratulate you as well on your position of Speaker. I'm sure you'll serve as a role model for all our youth. I would like to congratulate all those Members who ran for Cabinet. It takes a lot of nerve and a lot of energy to put your name forward and stand there and give your speeches. I would like to congratulate the Members of Cabinet who managed to get on Cabinet. But let me reassure all the other Members that there's lots of work to do and there's enough work to do to share it.

I would like to thank my family; my wife, Gladys, for all her support over the years. I encourage my mother, who is also in the gallery, Beatrice, not to give any more interviews.

---Laughter

---Applause

That's in jest; she knows I love her very much.

I would like to thank the constituents of Tu Nedhe. I would like to thank the people of Fort Resolution and Lutsel K'e for their support on October 16th. I would like to thank my campaign workers. We couldn't beat the previous term's percentage we had gotten, I think it was in 1991, it was 88.3 per cent. That was the highest vote margin in the Northwest Territories. We couldn't hit that this time, but it still makes John Todd the second-best in the North today, so that's good enough for me.

I would just like to say to my constituents that I will continually be there for them, I will always visit them in their homes. That's where we have our best time, is sitting there and visiting and having tea. I'm there to hear their concerns, I'll be there to take their advice, and I'll be there to listen to them and work for them. So I'll be there for the people of Tu Nedhe, for the elders, for the youth, and I will also be there for all the people in the Northwest Territories and the Members of this Legislative Assembly.

In the last week and a half it has been very enjoyable to come to work every day. It has been very enjoyable to see all 23 smiling faces and all 23 people, including myself, willing to work together. We can accomplish many good things as long as we are willing to work together. All I've heard for one solid week is we want to work together. We have an open-door policy in this government, let me assure you. And I would like to assure my good friend, Roy Erasmus, from Yellowknife North, if you ever see that door closing the least little bit, let me know and I'll make sure it opens again.

We had our first Cabinet meeting yesterday around two o'clock. We made one major decision: As everybody knows, the Cabinet is on this side of the building and the ordinary Members are on that side. There was a door in between, so I got our good friend, David Hamilton, to remove that door and put it in storage. Hopefully, we don't have to put it back up. Mahsi cho, thank you very much.

---Applause