Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am pleased to provide opening comments for Bill 14 on behalf of the Legislative Assembly Board of Management. Bill 14 will amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council to revise the electoral districts of the Northwest Territories. The bill proposes changes to the electoral boundaries in the communities of Hay River, Inuvik and Yellowknife, while maintain the status quo in the remaining eight constituencies. Bill 14 does not propose any increase to the number of MLAs in the Legislative Assembly.

Madam Chair, on May 30th, 2006, the report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, 2006, was tabled in this House. On behalf of the Board of Management and, indeed, all Members, I would like to thank the commission, consisting of the Hon. Justice John Vertes, Mr. Eddie Erasmus of Behchoko, and Mr. Rod O'Brien of Hay River, for its hard work and thoughtful recommendations.

Once the commission's report was tabled, the Legislative Assembly Board of Management and all Members individually spent considerable time analyzing its recommendations. The board consulted with MLAs individually and the Caucus and came away with one dominate message, that now is not the time to expand the size of our Legislature.

In a time when spending on programs and infrastructure is under significant restraint, Members were of the view that increasing the size of the Legislature by two Members, at an annual cost of up to $900,000 per year, was not the responsible thing to do.

Bill 14 implements the commission's recommendations with respect to the rebalancing of the electoral boundaries in Inuvik and Hay River. These recommendations make good sense and do not result in the addition of any seats in the Legislative Assembly.

Madam Chair, Bill 14 does not create an additional seat in the Assembly for Yellowknife, as recommended by the commission, nor does it create a stand-alone seat for the community of Behchoko. The changes recommended for Yellowknife strike a more appropriate balance in the size of the existing seven Yellowknife constituencies such that if none is greater than 25 percent of the average constituency size in the Northwest Territories. The constituency of Monfwi would maintain its current boundaries, make it one of the largest constituencies, although still below the 25 percent guideline established by the Northwest Territories Supreme Court.

Madam Chair, Bill 14 strikes an important balance. It addresses the important and sensitive issue of voter parity without increasing the size of the Legislature. The time is surely coming when additional seats will have to be added to ensure relative equality of representation of electoral boundaries. Bill 14 offers an effective and balanced interim measure. Thank you, Madam Chair. That concludes my opening comments.