Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my comments will be brief. This issue did arise during the 13th Legislative Assembly and at the time, circumstances were such that we had to address the financial deficit of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Decisions were made. However, the reality of it was that contribution that we made to eliminate the pension contributed nothing towards the elimination of the deficit of the Northwest Territories. What we did do, however, was take a cut in our pay at the time as did civil servants. That was a contribution, but the pension area had no particular relevance to the deficit elimination in the Northwest Territories -- absolutely none.
I guess what I look at, Mr. Speaker, is the issue of what does a person do once they leave public life? There has been reference made to it. Mr. Lafferty referred to it. You know, it is very true. Members may leave here and find themselves in a very difficult situation. I think that should be kept in mind.
Some of us have the ability to move into businesses -- and I say some of us. Even there, some of us have given up our businesses in order to contribute here.
Mr. Speaker, there is a one-year term of once we leave this House, we are not allowed to do business with this government. A one-year term. That means as a consultant, you cut out half of the employment possibility here in this Territory. Many of you, as Mr. Lafferty has said, if you are doing your representation, then you may very well annoy some other employers out there. So what do you get out of this at the end?
At the end, there really is not a great deal of reward. Not that we come in here with the reward in mind, but I think there needs to be recognition of some security. The issue has been covered fully here with the comment that the money that is there, it is not like we are contributing from this government towards this pension. It is already there. We are personally contributing towards that as other Members have.
The income level of MLAs, Mr. Speaker, is not that high. I would suggest to you that many of our public servants make a lot more than our MLAs do, yet the responsibility is incredible.
Mr. Krutko speaks facetiously and in a laughing tone about the grey hairs, but it is very true. All of us put in hour after hour and we do not have a personal life after we get into this House. We really do not have a personal life. I have tremendous difficulty getting around to taking care of my personal affairs, time wise, because when do you leave here, you are either exhausted or you have to take care of constituency business or other matters.
Mr. Speaker, dealing with the issue of pensions, I do not believe we are in any way cutting into the coffers of the territorial government. I think it is very justified. As Mr. Krutko mentioned earlier, previous Members had it in place.
I also agree with Mr. Krutko that we should not cut off the possibility of buying it back for possible service. Why not? That is up to us. If I am prepared to pay for that cost, why should I not be able to do that? I agree with Mr. Krutko on that.
Mr. Speaker, I will be voting in favour, as you can well tell, with the motion. Thank you.
-- Applause