Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, am in favour generally of this bill as has been indicated by my colleagues, Mr. Dent and Mr. Ootes. The bill will take effect for the next Assembly, the 14th Assembly, and it should make things a lot simpler of those Members. I know that when we took office I was quite surprised with the amount of money that we were making because I too was a member of the public at one time. I read the newspaper reports. I thought people made huge amounts of money and although some people still think that the money we make is a lot of money, I suppose it is, it is nowhere near the amount of money that people think that MLAs make. That is simply because of the reporting procedures by members of the press to continually, for one reason or another, add up all the office expenses, transportation expenses, constituency assistant's expenses, and everything else and roll it into one. It makes it seem as though it is part of your salary.
I know that I was quite surprised when I learned that I think the former Member from the Eastern Arctic was credited to making something like $170,000. I think half of that was for his transportation to and from his constituency. Not half, but a great amount.
Hopefully, this will make things simpler and a lot easier to understand for the general public. I know it will certainly make it a lot easier for the MLAs who will now receive the same amount of money every two weeks, the same as all our employees receive a cheque every two weeks and that is what they make. In that way, it will make thinks a lot easier for the next group of MLAs.
One thing I may not necessarily agree with, it does not sit well with me, is the fact that some MLAs sit on more committees than others and may work a lot more than other MLAs but they will not necessarily be paid for that extra work. Sometimes there is a fair amount of work that has to be done on bills and those types of things, particularly the Social Programs Committee. They had to deal with 62 percent of the budget, or whatever, and there were an awful lot of meetings involved. Although it is the case that those people who sit on more committees than others will not be remunerated for those extra meetings, I am in favour of this new system because it makes is simpler for everybody, particularly, for the reporting.
Also, Mr. Chairman, the Conflict of Interest Review Panel came back with several recommendations. I particularly like the fact that once the Conflict Commissioner determines that there are enough grounds to warrant an inquiry, then he or she directs an inquiry be started. The Commissioner of the Northwest Territories then appoints a sole adjudicator, which is a totally separate person from the Conflict Commissioner, so there is no apprehension of bias. There are two different parties that will be doing the process now and I like that. I think that a lot of other people will like that process as well.
As well, we have indicated in the conflict provision whose legal counsel will be paid for and that type of thing. That clarifies that area. In the past, I do not think it was as clear so a lot of people argued about this and that. This now clearly spells it out. I think it is a lot better. It doesn't matter which way it goes, as long as it is clearly spelled out. I think it helps clarify the issue.
The way that the system will work in the future, I do not think that you will really need legal counsel anyway. The new system will help make things simpler and easier to understand.
Mr. Chairman, again I just want to reiterate that I am in favour of this bill. I realize that perhaps people thought it should have happened sooner, but there has been a lot of things on our plate. I think that putting new things in place for yourself are very difficult things to do. I think that the best thing we could do for the next Legislative Assembly is to pass this now so that they do not have to worry about it being the first thing that they have to do when they get here. Thank you.