Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow we should conclude the 1998-99 budget. This will be the last joint budget of this territorial Assembly. Mr. Speaker, of late, we have been consumed and I think somewhat diverted by some of the tempests that have swirled about in this Legislative tea pot. It has detracted a lot from the good work we have

accomplished in the last three years. We have gone from a $150 million deficit to ending up this year with a surplus. That is good work on our part. There were a lot of hard work and decisions that were made by everybody, a lot of restructuring and other activity that had to take place to accomplish this. We could not have done it if we had not worked as an Assembly. Mr. Speaker, this is the last major initiative, in my opinion, of this Assembly. From here on in we are going to tend to operate as eastern and western Caucuses getting ready for division. I see the focus now for myself, and I think, for western MLAs for nailing down adequate formula financing arrangements with the federal government and to do the strategic planning that is going to be necessary for us as a Western Territory to be ready and up and running smoothly April 1, 1999. As we labour these next long days ahead of us until tomorrow night, we should not forget that we have done good work here and we are leaving the budget in a lot better shape than when we first found it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

--Applause