Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to address a subject today in my Member's statement which seems to be surrounded by a considerable amount of controversy. I know that I and probably just about every Member elected to this Assembly campaigned for election on a promise of open and accountable government. I made a commitment to the electorate of Hay River that I would support the abolishment of the lucrative three per cent supplementary MLA pension plan. I also committed to support rolling back MLAs' compensation and benefits to the same extent that we would expect our public service sector to accept.

In the new Members' zeal to show good faith in this matter, we did what some thought was a noble thing. - was personally of the opinion that we could revamp our own pay and benefits package without spending on a costly commission. However, the commission's report turned out to be more than we had bargained for and anticipated. The terms of reference and mandate given to the commission were very broad. As a result, 43 fairly-sweeping recommendations came forward. They mostly addressed the process by which MLAs are compensated, as opposed to the amount they are paid. The overall cost of the recommended package is not significantly greater than the old, with the exception of the major saving from the pension program change.

With the pressing issues of the budget planning and negotiations with the various unions upon us, rather than delving into the pros and cons of raising base salaries and deleting indemnities, versus keeping base salaries and indemnities separate, at cetera, we agreed that this was not the appropriate time to undertake a complete overhauling of the process by which MLAs are compensated. Thus, we returned to our original intent, which was to do away with the supplementary pension and roll back salaries and indemnities, and we did this. Unfortunately, the per them we are paid to live outside of our constituencies is not deemed to be an indemnity; but rather an allowance to cover expenditures related to living away from home. This is indexed and, effective April 1st, went up by 2.1 per cent. 1, personally, thought that the seven per cent reduction covered everything: salaries, indemnities and allowances. In respect to this cost-of-living index increase, I support it being reduced by seven per cent from the 1995 rate.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to complete my Member's statement.