Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as stated by those speaking previously to this bill, I as well support the initiative that has brought this forward and that we are going to see a day recognized of the people, the aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories. This is a significant move to recognize that in the Northwest Territories. I as well had some concerns and I have raised them. There has been much discussion to see if there was an appetite to do a trade of days, in a sense, to establish June 21st as the holiday but remove August 8th, trying to save the private sector some funding. They are the biggest ones out there who are going to pay for this. The government as well. There is a cost to this in the sense of a monetary issue.

Though I understand and recognize the need to move forward on this, I also know that there are a lot of small businesses out in the NWT who would have to fund this holiday. I do not think it was a thing to try to add costs but recognizing again the importance of this.

When you look at the discussions we went through in public hearings, there was almost a split in the committee as to which way to go. Then the government has decided not to concur with the amendment that was put forward. It is unfortunate in a sense for the funding situation but I, along with Members of this House, feel that it is an important enough issue to move on and have this established. Although I might not agree with some Members saying August 8th represents nothing. You will have some labour groups probably say that is an issue that they have worked hard to get recognized by government. Again, it was a big concern as to the total impact when it comes to both this government and private sector businesses.

It is something we need to put in place, but there is still some concern there of the impact to the private sector. Hopefully, in the Minister's response it will be something he will try to address and why the government or Cabinet did not want to see this move forward.

I know that when there was much debate between other Ministers of this government and committee Members on this idea of moving this date over, it was one where they defended the establishment without a trade because August long weekend is one that is in our Public Service Act and has been negotiated there and that was a concern.

A fair bit of Members have felt there was a need to still move forward with an amendment but at this stage, I think the majority of Members recognizing the importance of the issue have agreed to move forward on this. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.