Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I expect that I will make specific comments under each motion when the items come up for debate, but as a way of general comment on this report, I would like to state first of all that I would like to acknowledge the courage and the respect for this House that the Minister has shown in tendering her resignation this afternoon. I am sure that it was not an easy thing for her and I really would like to acknowledge her for having done what she felt was right for the integrity and respect for this process, so as to avoid unnecessary debate that might debase this process even further.

Secondly, Mr. Chairman, I need to state that yesterday and throughout today, I was asked by the media about whether or not I thought that the Minister should resign. Apparently there was a poll being conducted and I chose not to respond to any of those inquiries because when I sat here and read the report while it was being reported, my sense was just an overwhelming sense of sadness and dark clouds coming over this House. It just really was not a good day for this House and this government and for the people of the Territories. I wanted a moment to reflect on that and I felt that it was no longer a question about whether a Minister should resign or not. It was much bigger than that.

I really do believe that by the content of this report and the process of this committee, a serious assault has been committed to the constitutional and democratic system that we are here to protect.

Mr. Chairman, the overwhelming sense I get from reading and reflecting on this report is an apparent abuse of power by those who have been given the power from this Assembly to conduct an inquiry into an issue that needed to be looked at.

Mr. Chairman, I have looked at the report to see where this committee obtains power and apparently it comes with the notion of parliamentary privilege. The way it reads in the excerpt from Beauchesne and other authorities, as outlined in this report, it appears that we do have unlimited power, apparently, and it really gives the ones who proclaim to have it a lot of power to do whatever it is that it sees fit in doing.

At the same time, Mr. Chairman, I have stated on many occasions in this House that for every right, privilege and power that we as Members have as an elected representative, along comes with that at least an equal amount of responsibility to make sure that that power is not abused and that there is some sense of balance and check.

I do believe that the tone and the context of this text shows an excessive sense of righteousness, negativity and moral superiority that has gone completely unchecked. As I reflect on this, I keep telling myself that I have to be measured in my response. I have to be respectful of the process and I have to be respectful of this House which, Mr. Chairman, I must admit is not really in line with my normal personality. I am usually not measured about many things. I like to just say what I think and stand or fall by them. I will try to do that as much as I can in this debate.

I was very saddened by the negativity of this report and the consequence of this report in destroying a number of reputations of all parties involved and in the way it was written so as to make the impact more negative and more insidious. I saw in here a complete disregard and disrespect for the place and role of media and public service in a constitutional democracy and in a democratic system. I see a process that lacked at least giving very discretionary access to fairness and due process to the parties involved. I see a process that showed a complete lack of natural justice for parties involved equally.

At the bottom of all this I think, Mr. Chairman, that we have to remember is how we started this process, how this process got started. I could appreciate and I could accept that there might be a time when a House like this may want to exercise the kind of power that it has chosen to exercise in this process. If there was a state of emergency, if there was some sort of happenings that really seriously jeopardizes lives of the people or our future or something like that.

However, what we have to remember is the little seed that started this process is a stupid clerical error on a corporate registry. It was an error that anybody who practices in that area knows happens daily. I realize that there were incremental steps taken by each party in this process to make it bigger and larger than it had to be. I do not want to impugn the Minister, but I think the Minister has acknowledged that she used a lack of judgment in that sense. I think what this committee has done has made that tenfold more insidious than it had to be.

I think we have to remember that. I think that in order for a House like this to come down with the kind of power that it chose to exercise, we have to account for what the reasons are.

Mr. Chairman, I kept thinking about this abuse of power and I guess I have to accept that if we feel that it is fit and it is in the interests of the public to use the power in that way, I do not think we are without the requirement for accountability and the party that we are accountable to. I do not think we are reviewable by any courts or anybody. The court of appeal for this decision is this House. The final court of appeal of what goes on with respect to this report and this issue is the people out there. People have to take the time to listen to what is going on here and judge us as to whether we have used a fair sense of judgment in dealing with this entire issue. I think that is the only accountability and that is the most important accountability. I think that all of us have to really reflect on that so with that, I am going to close my general comments and make more specific comments under each category of motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.