Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today I had an opportunity to appear before the Commission on MLA Compensation. I addressed many of my constituents' on the way we pay ourselves. I made reference to the confusion of the present system of compensation. Do you realize we have 13 different accounts under which we are paid? One is a salary for sitting in the House; a further for constituency work; an extra remuneration for committee work, et cetera.

I addressed this confusion, as well as the issue of pensions. My constituents really feel that the pension provision is far too lucrative. I emphasized the need for the commission to recommend changes and not to accept the status quo. However, I suggested that they take into account a number of considerations; these included the fact that this is a demanding job which to me, so far, has been quite full time. There is no job security in this and the job of an MLA must be made financially fair so that knowledgeable and capable citizens in the North want to represent us in this Legislature.

My major suggestions for change to the commission were that MLAs should have one basic salary based on the assumption that we do attend all the meetings demanded of the job; that constituency/Legislature business is intermixed and cannot be easily separated; that we should be penalized for absences in our duties in the Legislative Assembly and lack of attendance at committee meetings; we should get extra, but equal compensation for chairing any of the committees; and finally, I asked that the pension system be changed to conform with comparative standards in the rest of Canada.

I am disappointed that more Members did not make statements to the commission and am especially disappointed that only one former Member of this House made a presentation. I hope that we can expect the comprehensive and complete report from this commission. Thank you.

---Applause