Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to pass on my congratulations to both Mr. Antoine for his election to Premier and Mr. Roland in his election to Minister in our Cabinet. Also congratulations to those Members who competed in those races.

Mr. Speaker, there have been a lot of expressions by the public, over the radio, to me personally and perhaps to other Members about the need for and a desire for an early election in the Western Territory. That requires a bit of explanation so the public understands what we have gone through to reach decisions on this. It has been the subject of discussion by the western Members off and on for the past year. In Nunavut an amendment was passed by federal statute that allows for the February election in Nunavut. Here in the west earlier this year we set October 4th as our election date, and there were some reasons why that particular date was selected. We needed to resolve a number of issues. One of the issues, of course, was the issue of trying to reach consensus and to reach a new constitution for the west. That issue took some time and it eventually was not resolved.

However, the other challenge before us was, could we get a new budget together for the west. By the time we reached resolution on that issue it was almost too late to call for an earlier election. As a Member I have always felt that we should go for an early election. I have dealt with that for the past year. My position was that and it continues to be that, but I have not been successful in convincing my Cabinet colleagues. As I said earlier, it was discussed extensively by all of us, but now once we got the two major issues out of the way, the constitution and the budget, some other challenges are before us. One is, it would require a federal statute amendment to have an early election before us. While that is not impossible to achieve, there are a number of other technical matters and administrative matters that make it very challenging. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.