Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to echo Minister Arlooktoo's congratulations to all those who participated yesterday and particularly to Mr. Antoine and Mr. Roland.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the Great Hall we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 21 of that declaration calls for the authority of the government to be based on the will of the people. Article 21 goes on to say that, the will of the people shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal sufferage. In Canada, Mr. Speaker, we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which ensures constitutional protection for individual rights. The same constitution which protects the rights of aboriginal people to self-government also protects, through the Charter, an individual's right to relative parity of voting power.

In the 6th Session of this Assembly we considered the report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission 1998. That report recommended two more seats for Yellowknife. As Members will no doubt recall, that recommendation was rejected in this House. Mr. Speaker, the Boundaries Commission recommended that six out of 16 or 37.5 percent of the seats in the future 14th Assembly be allocated to Yellowknife. I have no doubt that this recommendation was largely based on consideration of the case law relevant in charter references.

However, Members were not comfortable with more seats for Yellowknife only. Mr. Speaker, after looking at the numbers in a couple of other constituencies, another approach came to mind. Perhaps Members would consider adding a couple of seats outside of Yellowknife to help maintain the balance. Hay River and Inuvik are the two constituencies with the largest populations outside of Yellowknife, so why not consider adding another seat each to Hay River and Inuvik? The only problem there, Mr. Speaker, is that if you add two seats in Yellowknife and two in other communities, Yellowknife would have only 33 percent of the seats in the 14th Assembly. This falls short of the 37.5 percent recommended by the learned members of the Boundaries Commission with, we can be sure, the charter requirements in mind. Mr. Speaker, there would be other ways to address this. Perhaps considering a total of five seats being added, three in Yellowknife and two outside, which would mean 36.8 percent of the seats in the House for Yellowknife which is not far off the 37 percent recommended by the Boundaries Commission. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.