Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not think the court would actually order a delay in the election, Mr. Chairman. That would involve some fairly significant issues of parliamentary privilege and democracy, the right to control the timing of elections. As well, we have certain time frames under the NWT Act, in which an election must be held.
The difficulty, of course, would be if there were a challenge to our electoral boundaries and that challenge was a successful challenge. The question would then arise whether this legislature could convene an Assembly, a meeting, in sufficient time to make the necessary changes to the electoral boundaries for an upcoming territorial election. This in itself, the practical reality of a court decision in itself, might delay an election because if a court decision were rendered very late in the process it might be very difficult for this Assembly to meet, change the electoral boundaries to accommodate the needs of the court decision, and to do all of the work that is preparatory to an election, such as enumeration, having electoral maps available, having all the administrative structure in place, so that every single constituency is set up to effectively run a fair and proper election. That would be the result.
I doubt the court would actually delay the holding of an election, but we would run the risk that a court decision would come close to the election, which might impair our ability to effectively have an election, or alternatively, any election we had might subsequently be found to be based on boundaries, which the court orders changed. This of course, would lead to a new election. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.