Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is good to be back in session. I would like to take this first Member's statement to tell you how happy I am to tell you that I have recovered very, very well from my double-bypass coronary surgery.

-- Applause

In the circumstances that I was in, Mr. Speaker, I had a lot of opportunity, as you can appreciate, a lot of time to reflect on our role here. I must say that the bottom line for me is that I am very, very happy to be back here and to continue my work representing the people of the Northwest Territories and the students and the people who are in need out there. I must say that I feel like I am certainly back to full speed serving this Legislature again.

I was very fortunate to have the services of some very fine medical people to help me through this process. I would like to make reference to several from Stanton Regional Hospital: Dr. John Morse, who is the intern medicine specialist at the hospital. He certainly has the expertise and knowledge, but also a very important element that I felt was very important for someone in my circumstance and others that may go into my type of situation, and that is the compassion he showed for the need I had, but also the understanding that it can be a very traumatic situation for a person to be in.

The other person I would like to mention is Dr. Theresa Hansen, who helped spur everyone on to take good care of me while I was in the hospital here in Yellowknife. And of course, the nurses and the medical staff -- I cannot say enough about the tremendously good work and the wonderful approach that they take to their work in treating patients, Mr. Speaker.

There were many others. The Yellowknife firefighters who handled the ambulance service and the medevac crew and the medevac nurses that take care of you when you are medevaced to the Capital Health Authority in Edmonton.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those who sent flowers, cards and books, and who visited me while I was in the hospital. I certainly enjoyed their visits, Mr. Speaker, and want to thank all of my friends and my colleagues who had the opportunity to visit.

I would like to thank Minister Handley for taking over my portfolio during my absence. Last of all, I would like to thank my family, and especially my wife Marg, for the tremendous support she provided. Thank you.

-- Applause