Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon, I also made a decision along with the honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche, to do the right thing not only for ourselves; we made this commitment for our people in our regions. I made the choice to stop continuous smoking. I have taken the Minister of Health and Social Services' challenge to be smoke-free. That is almost one year ago he gave me that challenge. It has taken me a long time to come to that challenge. The decision to look at my life and the impact of cigarettes on the younger people greatly disturbed me, Mr. Speaker. However, the power of my addiction to the nicotine which is in the cigarette has always overridden my logical thinking of putting the cigarette away. It was a common statement that I would quit tomorrow, it was not hurting anybody, or it was nobody else's business.

So, Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. It is time to walk the walk and butt out for the rest of our lives. Our children, our youth, deserve a chance to live a good strong life away from the harmful addictions.

Mr. Speaker, the 2003 school tobacco survey similarly reports that 39 percent of young people between the ages of 10 and 17 years smoke in small communities like those in the Sahtu. A pack of cigarettes cost about $15 in the Sahtu. However, although smoking is very expensive, it is more than that. Mr. Speaker, a letter will be sent out also to the schools in the Sahtu to challenge the school children not to smoke at all, or to give up smoking, to be smoke-free, and also a chance to be out there to all the constituents in the Sahtu region. I have also taken the challenge of Mr. Menicoche, to challenge his constituency to see which numbers would be the greater in terms of being smoke-free in our region. I love a good challenge. I would also like to report the results in January.

Mr. Speaker, for many years I have looked at cigarettes. One thing that really made a big difference in our life was, the other day when I was driving back from Peace River...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member's statement.

---Applause