Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to share with Members in the House my constituency travel, which I just concluded recently. As you all know, I represent six communities. I think it's safe to say that it's the most communities that I have to represent in the House here. From February 1st to the 12th, I had the opportunity to travel to all the six communities by road and winter road with a vehicle. I just wanted to say that upon visiting all the communities, each community is very busy. There is a lot of potential for growth in each community, and members of the community leadership are working very hard in trying to make life better for people in communities. There is a lot of concern out there.
I've been to Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte, where we opened a new assembly hall on which I will make a separate Member's statement about later on.
In Fort Simpson, I asked my constituency assistant to find a date during that week where I could have a meeting and he was told that Tuesday would be a very good day. When the meeting came around, I found out there were six other meetings going on in that small community. So that's just an example of how busy people are in the communities. Everybody has their own concerns, they're working on their own projects, they have their own businesses and so forth.
During this trip to the communities, I had the opportunity to meet with various community leaders as well as individuals and elders. At the formal meetings, they are very important, and I had the opportunity to visit a lot of different groups and different people in the communities.
I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, that I consider these community meetings to be one of the most important responsibilities of MLAs. Even though, Mr. Speaker, we're all involved with other obligations as MLAs, the concerns and issues brought to our attention by our constituents take priority over all other matters. That's the way I regard my responsibility. I just wanted to share that with you. Mahsi.
---Applause