Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all I just wanted to apologize for being late today. I was going to drive back from Hay River and be here on time but we had a rather blustery snow storm. I held off, so I do apologize for my lateness and my attire. Mr. Chairman, with respect to the Electoral Boundaries Commission Report, I think that there has been some confusion surrounding this report in that different areas in the north seem to be answering different questions. I believe when the commission came to Hay River the message was very clear from Hay River, that they wanted to see the number of MLAs remain at 14 until after division and until after the issue surrounding the western constitution and governance had been determined, then look at the issue of the number of Members. Hay River took a fairly strong position that we should remain at 14 Members, until those other things are determined.

The second question is, if it were determined there was a need for an increase in the number of seats then certainly a number of communities would have been looked at in that light, including Yellowknife and Hay River. As the commission report stands right now, if it were adopted they way it is, it would see Hay River as being quite disproportionately under represented with only one Member. I am trying to break this out and trying to convey there are actually two questions here.

On the first question of the number of MLAs, it is my position, and that of most of the people I have talked to in my riding, this is premature, to look at increasing the number of MLAs until after these other issues of governance and constitution have been thoroughly addressed and determined. With that, Mr. Chairman, those are my remarks and I will not be supporting the Electoral Boundaries Commission Report. Thank you.