Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Commissioner opened the 13th Assembly by talking about change and challenges. The 13th and final Legislative Assembly has, over the past several months, tried to address these changes with an increasing deficit and division looming on the horizon. It hasn't been easy.
When I return to Iqaluit, people keep asking me, what's it like in Yellowknife; what have we been doing. Mr. Speaker, coming into the election last fall, I guess I was guilty of the misconception that affects the public at large. Mr. Speaker, that misconception was and is that MLAs receive big salaries, that MLAs talk a lot and accomplish little, that MLAs spend a few days a month sitting in the Legislature and the rest of the time attending a few meetings. Well, Mr. Speaker, this Member was in for a rude shock when I came here. I also believed those things. I have kept a day-to-day account of my activities in a diary since being elected. Reviewing my said diary on the way back to Yellowknife yesterday, on the long flight from Iqaluit, I realized that for the amount of work I have put in, the hours that were allotted and my remuneration for said work, I earn approximately $11 an hour.
--- Interjection