Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It has been an interesting discussion this afternoon and I know that there's been a lot of weight on the cost of more Members in this House. I know my constituents have told me that they agree that they're not anxious to see the cost of representation go up. I know somebody today said more Members won't bring in more money. I think that was probably the Minister of Finance...

---Laughter

...but he's absolutely right; they won't. But what we're talking about here is not just about representation. My colleague Mr. McLeod made some very strong arguments about how people in the smaller communities, representatives from the smaller communities have a much tougher time talking to their constituents and representing them. They have a different function in many ways than MLAs from Yellowknife do. I appreciate that; I respect that; and I agree with him that if that isn't being addressed through the MLA Compensation Commission, we need to find some way to address that, whether it's improved travel expenses, or improved constituency assistant expenses for other Members. I'm sympathetic, because I agree that we all need to be able to have reasonable access to our constituents. We need to be able to do our jobs.

But what we're talking about here today is not about representation. I know that's tough to think about, but the Constitution of Canada doesn't say that we're supposed to have representation based on how easily we can get hold of our constituents, or how easily they can get hold of us, or on how we do our jobs. It's not about people's voices being heard even, or access. What it really is, is the Supreme Court has said that the first issue around representation is around relative parity of voting power. That means that my vote in this House is supposed to be relatively equal to that of every other Member, and if it's not the courts have said that there's a problem.

Now, this House has made very clear today that there is no interest in increasing the numbers in our next Legislative Assembly as we go forward. I think that we probably should have accepted the recommendations of the commission, but given that that has been rejected, I know that it would be very, very risky for us to agree to increase in a constituency outside of Yellowknife and not increase within Yellowknife, because then you would be really affecting the relative parity of the votes. Therefore, even though I, too, have travelled in the Tlicho region and I have been lobbied by people in the communities of Whati and Gameti to support an extra seat for the Monfwi region, because of the importance of the relative parity, I have to apologize to the Member for Monfwi, but I, too, will have to vote against this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.