Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about our style of government. We take pride in our unique style of consensus government, and I agree that there are many advantages to the way in which we conduct the business of this government when one observes the gridlock and adversarial energy often expended in governments with a party system. Incidentally, I think many of our legislators in the House of Commons are gaining a whole new appreciation for consensus government since they convened after the last federal election.
Another major component of our work is that of the committees which we sit on. I believe I can say that our required participation through membership on the various standing committees in the government is where we spend the most of our duty time, apart from the work in our constituencies. We have been in session for about the past week and a half. Sometimes we attend in Yellowknife when session is not on for committees, but we also meet and have at least one committee meeting a day while we're here while session is on. Mr. Speaker, as the Members know, it's not uncommon to meet at 9:00, 10:30, noon, 1:30, and then at adjournment. I have a problem with this on a number of fronts, Mr. Speaker. I fundamentally believe that too much of our work is conducted in committee behind closed doors.