Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I raised some concerns about the election process; in particular, how it was handled in the riding of Thebacha, and what I thought was the fumbling by the Chief Electoral Officer's office in Ottawa.

I am now aware that a letter was received yesterday indicating that the RCMP report has been sent to the Chief Electoral Officer and was received on April 14th. One of the reasons they give for their tardy response is that their work schedule is deterred and deferred by bomb threats. I can only surmise from that that I am not the only individual who has a problem spurring this particular agency to action, even though I don't condone the use of that kind of extreme threat. It would seem that it is an issue with other people in Canada as well.

The letter indicates that hopefully by the middle of May, we should have an answer. I will give them the benefit of that doubt, but I would like to point out that in keeping with the Budget Address and the Premier's comments yesterday, the need to take over control of our own resources and services and to give the Chief Electoral Officer his due. Back in 1991, in his report, he made two recommendations that I think we should act on. Those recommendations are that the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly should take the necessary steps to appoint the Northwest Territories first resident Chief Electoral Officer and that the territorial Cabinet should enter into negotiations with the Government of Canada for the funding of the administration of elections.

I think it is time we acted on that, so that we never have to go through this again and we can deal with issues in the North, without having to go to some distant far-off office, a last vestige of the old-style colonial government. I will be bringing that forward through the appropriate channels to ensure we pursue that. Thank you.