Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to put an end to all of this once and for all. Personally, I have never spoken publicly about this issue before, but I really did not see the need for this special Assembly here in the middle of the summer. The cost incurred by the special committee to do its work, as well as pulling everybody together for the session today and the next two days to review this, I did not agree with that whole process. However, we are all pulled into this whole process and I have to speak about it because the people who put us here are wondering what we are doing here.

To accommodate this situation, we are here. I try to see the merit in the people who put me here and in what we are doing here today. We already dealt with the Honourable Jane Groenewegen's withdrawal of application against the Conflict of Interest Commissioner. We did that. We passed that motion. There is no more application here against the Conflict of Interest Commissioner.

Then we passed a motion saying that the Conflict of Interest Commissioner may submit her report on the initial cause of this whole process on the complaint filed by Mr. Jack Rowe from Hay River on Minister Jane Groenewegen in regard to the way she arranged her affairs.

We set up this special committee and it has done its work. The special committee is also recommending that they continue to do their work. I am wondering for what reasons?

As a Legislative Assembly, we have the power -- our own inherent power -- to control our own proceedings, privileges and prerogatives. As a Member of the Legislative Assembly being pulled into this whole process, my view is the committee has already done its work and we should get on with it.

There are many projects and many requests for funding coming to us, and we have spent a lot of money on this process to date. It is tremendous, "...a tremendous waste of time and resources...," a quote I picked out from one of the letters. I agree with that. My concern is how long is this process going to go and at what cost?

I would like to thank the committee for doing their work. I know everybody is busy and they had to get together numerous times to try to do their work. I would like to thank them for that.

One of the terms of reference is to consider all aspects of the application, and there is a point made of certain tapings that happened. I did not know about these tapings until today. I did not. I am traveling, going to all these assemblies and being out there, meeting with the Dene and the aboriginal people. Unless somebody forgot to mention it to me before that, but to tell you the truth, I did not know about these tapings until earlier today.

It is wrong. I go on my own personal honesty and integrity. That is all I have. I am not a very rich man. That is what I try to protect. To do this sort of thing in this line of work is wrong. I think the Deputy Premier has paid the price for it today, as we heard in the emergency statement by the Premier. That is a big price to pay for things that happened there, but if that is what the special committee is going to go after, are you going to go after it or not, you know? Is that what it is? Are there other ways of pursuing it other than this special committee?

If you are going after the Conflict of Interest Commissioner, then I think the Board of Management should do its work and look at that, if that is what you are after. As far as I am concerned, I have no problem with the Conflict of Interest Commissioner. My dealings with the Conflict of Interest Commissioner have been on a professional level. I have had no concerns with the way she has conducted her work to this point. Hopefully, I will continue to work with her in that aspect, but as a Member here in the Legislative Assembly, this is where we decide on what we are going to do, what process we are going to do.

Being reluctantly pulled into this whole process, I would like to put an end to it and save our taxpayers some dollars. Perhaps there are other avenues that are there for us to pursue, whatever Members want to pursue.

Those are my thoughts on these things. Whenever I am in this Legislative Assembly, whenever I am going to speak, I try to draw on what I learned in Dene politics -- always try to be respectful and truthful and use your wisdom and your strength and try to have some humility in what you try to do. These are the different principles that I know exist in the aboriginal communities. We should try to use some of that in the Legislative Assembly once in a while. Perhaps things will go a lot better for what we are really here for -- to try to make life a lot better for people in the communities we represent. Mahsi.