Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The first thing I wanted to do was to congratulate the Speaker and the Clerk on being able to pave the driveway for the Legislative Assembly in one year when it was supposed to be done over the course of two years. They were able to save a considerable amount of money in doing this. Madam Chairperson, I think with all the visiting dignitaries that we have to the Legislative Assembly here, it was incumbent upon us to do this. I am glad we were able to do it in one year, as well save a considerable amount of money in doing so.
The other thing I wanted to touch on is something that Mr. Steen has already mentioned, the constituency assistants' salaries. I had an opportunity to look into it earlier and I know secretaries make more than the constituency assistants. I believe that at the time when people set the salaries for assistants, it may have been a part-time job and perhaps it still is a part-time job in some constituencies. However, Madam Chairperson, at the last election there were over 2,500 voters in my constituency and it is very, very difficult to serve that many people with a part-time assistant as well as having the person do research and helping to initiate new projects that a Member might want to do. In addition to that, when you have low pay for a good worker, good workers often will not stick around very long because there is an awful pile of better paying jobs out there. If you have a good person working then they will likely move onto another job unless they have another good paying part-time job. As I have indicated, I too, would certainly like to see something done to assist the constituency assistants get a better salary to live on so that we can do a better job and to ensure MLAs can retain good workers to maintain consistent service for their constituents. Thank you.