Thank you, Madam Chair. Along with myself, I think there were five MLAs altogether who made presentations to Justice Vertes and the other two members of the Electoral Boundaries Commission earlier this year. Madam Chair, there were two points that I put to the commission at the time. The first one was that, indeed, there was no need to grow the size of the Assembly. The 19 Members provided for in the NWT Assembly were enough to do the work, perform the tasks that we're required to do, and so that maintaining the 19 was, at least from the point of view of the capacity and the number of MLAs required was adequate.

The other request was to look at within the existing ridings to shave the peaks, if you will, and fill the valleys where we could do some adjustments with our ridings, especially in Yellowknife and then, of course, in Hay River and Inuvik, Madam Chair, to bring some more consistency to all our ridings and in effect do some housekeeping in that respect. I think that through the bill as presented, the second part of my request was indeed fulfilled, Madam Chair.

But to the first part of it, the size, the growth of the Legislative Assembly, this is where I put considerable weight, a considerable emphasis, Madam Chair, in the assignment that we gave to the boundaries commission to go out there and listen to the constituencies, listen to our people, and come back with their best recommendations on how our territory is changing, how our demographics are changing, where the populations are potentially shifting to, where they are going to shift. This is what the commission did. They came back with a recommendation for the expansion of two ridings. Given the report they came back with, Madam Chair, and in the process of that, the signals that we received from the community of Behchoko that they strongly felt they deserved and, indeed, were sort of at the threshold of warranting a new riding, that this made sense. I also know, Madam Chair, that from the point of view of my community of Yellowknife, that there would be an offsetting desire to create some parity here and look for an additional seat in Yellowknife.

Madam Chair, a reality is that Yellowknife now has I believe somewhere in the neighbourhood of 47 or 48 percent of the population in the Northwest Territories, but here in the Legislative Assembly about 37 or 38 percent of the voting weight. That is, I believe, an allowable discrepancy, but I know that there are people in the community, and I will say I'm one of them, that I do not want to see that level of representation, comparative representation, eroded, Madam Chair. I think on that basis that establishing another seat for Yellowknife is a way of maintaining the parity, or at least the perception of parity, in our relative populations.

So in that respect then, Madam Chair, as I did in my newsletter in June, I have endorsed the recommendation of the boundaries commission and I favour that position on the floor of the Assembly today.

Madam Chair, I think it's important to consider that in making this kind of decision, one of the MLAs, of course through the Electoral Boundaries Act, have taken the work of the boundaries commission as a recommendation. We have the final say, at least in terms of the act and our own decision-making capacity. But, Madam Chair, I do want to keep in mind that we aren't the only ones who have a say in how representation should be determined. Regular citizens, Madam Chair, quite rightly have the opportunity if they feel that their representation is not fair and balanced with those of others in the Northwest Territories, they can take their grievance to a court and have it heard.

Madam Chair, eight years ago that is indeed what happened to this Assembly, and there was quite an unexpected outcome I think to what the legislators-of-the-day thought would be the case when they decided to ignore or decline the recommendation of the boundaries commission in 1999, or was it 1998, Madam Chair. This is especially an area of concern to me, Madam Chair, that I think in seeking the support of the recommendations of the boundaries commission, we are supporting the people of Behchoko, we are supporting the people of Yellowknife, we are avoiding, I believe, the potential for this issue going yet again into the courts, and potentially for the Legislative Assembly to let go something that we should indeed have responsibility for and take the steps, indeed, to represent our citizens as equitably and fairly as we can. So in that respect, Madam Chair, it's perhaps fitting that the voter, the constituent in this case can and does and may have the last word in this issue, and that is why I support the boundaries commission and the creation of two more ridings, Madam Chair.