Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I spoke in June with my reply to the Opening Address, so I appreciate being able to use two-and-a-half minutes here to express my thank yous and thoughts of my eight-and-a-half years in political life.

Mr. Speaker, I told my colleagues how far we have come in the time I have been a witness to the evolution of political life in the Northwest Territories, some 40 years. In 1964, the Eastern Arctic didn't have political representation and that area is Nunavut today. Today we have the Tlicho bill before us and what remarkable progress we've made, Mr. Speaker. Even in those early days, the representation was from appointed Members from southern Canada, so we have evolved tremendously. For me. Mr. Speaker, the past 50 years of my working life here has been as a civil servant, as a business person, and they've been exciting and interesting and a fabulous life for me, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take an opportunity to thank my staff who have worked with me over the past four years so diligently, some have come recently. I would like to acknowledge my EA, Evan Walz, who is in the gallery today; Kathy Wind, my secretary; Pearl Benyk, my CA; and, I would also like to thank them for their tremendous support that they've provided to me over the four years. Of course, it's been an honour for me to represent the constituency of Yellowknife Centre and I thank my constituents.

Of course, the most important thank you I leave to my wife, Margaret, who's been my supporter and, like Mr. Steen, I have missed many a day for supper and that's sometimes hard to take for people who support us, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to say hello to my son, Luke, who today is a geologist with this government and I am sure he'll enjoy his life here in the Northwest Territories. In December, I will leave public life, Mr. Speaker, and I will devote myself until the last day diligently and totally dedicated. Then I will go on to my next hurrah in the North here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause