Thank you, Madam Chairperson. Just some opening general comments on the Legislative Assembly on the vision, goals and mission. Over the last couple of years, having been the rookie MLA and now having had an opportunity to reflect on the last two years of how this Legislative Assembly functions, I have found some very good things logistically as to how the Legislative Assembly works, the management structure and style.
I also note in the overview on page 1-3, that one of the mandates of this business plan we are about to look at, is to allow for the establishment of a fully functioning Legislative Assembly for Nunavut by April 1, 1999. That would be my major concern here.
About a month ago, when I was home in Iqaluit, I had an opportunity to look at the plans that were made initially for the temporary Legislative Assembly building. I understand that our Legislative staff have actually been working in concert with the architects designing that building. There were some flaws, for example, the library in the new building is 150 square feet, where this one is 1,500 square feet. Our Legislative Assembly staff actually picked up on that so I was very pleased to see that. I have some general questions later on, of the operations of the Legislative Assembly itself, the financial implications of the Legislative Assembly, the person-years at the Legislative Assembly and the hiring practices of the Legislative Assembly here in Yellowknife.
I would also like to compliment the Clerk, Mr. David Hamilton, on his recent appointment as the Chief Electoral Officer for all of the Northwest Territories, which was an Order-in-Council of the federal government, I believe. I would also like to say that the Assembly itself, the way it acts and reacts within its budget, has been very progressive. I would also note in my opening comments that the Legislative Assembly has tried to initiate some new ways of getting information out to the public. In this respect, the Legislative Assembly has put up a web page, which I understand is getting a lot of hits on the Internet. It is well done and very professional. I believe Mr. Sorensen is the Web Master. I have had some comments from my constituents on the web page. On that web page, they have actually put up new pictures of all the gallery, where you have people like Mr. Ningark, and yourself, Madam Chairperson, the Speaker and so on. Some of the pictures are very flattering, some have to be adjusted as I noted this morning when reviewing my own. Thank you, your honourable Member, Mr. Miltenberger. Those are just my general comments. I will have some good questions later for the staff, for the Speaker, Mr. Gargan, and his associate, Mr. Hamilton. I would also like to say, that sometimes in the Legislative Assembly, we get wrapped up in our own self-importance.
--Laughter
Madam Chairperson, that was demonstrated during the unity debate when we had this huge flag over the backdrop of the Speaker's chair when we were going to go live on TVNC, that C-PAC was going to pick us up, and everything was going to stop on Bay Street, and President Clinton was going to be tuning in, of course, none of that happened. Sometimes we get overly dramatic at the Legislative Assembly, and maybe that is something we could all take a lesson from. With that, those are my opening comments on the Legislative Assembly and I will have further questions on the fully functional Nunavut Legislative Assembly, staffing for Nunavut and other general questions on the operations and maintenance budgets of this Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chairperson.