Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concern about the Premier's statement of February 4th, regarding the questioning by Ordinary Members over the Lahm Ridge Tower lease. Mr. Speaker, the Premier's statement caused me concern as an Ordinary Member. He challenged the Member for Hay River to file a conflict of interest complaint. I can only conclude that we have fundamentally different views on the rights and obligations of government and Ordinary Members. As the Premier said, we do have processes outside of this House for dealing with citizens' concerns. In fact, we have several. We have courts and commissioners and adjudicators. As he said, it is true that anyone may make a complaint to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner. I have the greatest of respect for these institutions but, Mr. Speaker, we have another process, one that goes back centuries. It is called democracy. Democracy means responsible government and that means that those individuals not in a governing position have a responsibility to question and be a sober second thought. Responsible government means several things, but foremost, to me it means that Ministers of government are accountable to the people through their elected representatives, the Ordinary Members of this House. Government must be fair and just. It must be seen to be fair and just. There are few opportunities for government to directly answer questions to the people, questions of the people. If there are rumours and innuendo and if the rumours are misconceived, I would have thought that the government would welcome the opportunity to clear up the misconceptions. Instead the Premier chose to challenge one of the Members. Mr. Speaker, whether or not government welcomes this opportunity, Ordinary Members will continue to ask questions in this House whether it is pleasant or unpleasant for the government. It is our responsibility and our duty as Ordinary Members. We will continue to exercise our duty. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause