Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to thank, as well, the commission members for the hard work and the job that they did on developing the recommendations contained in the report and it's very interesting hearing other Members around this room discussing this very important topic. I listened quite closely to what my colleague Mr. Lafferty had to say from Monfwi and appreciated what he had to say. From where I stand, and I don't want to go over a lot of ground most Members have covered, but from where I stand I think an important factor in all this is we try our best to stay out of court. I think we certainly could be challenged on a number of fronts. The bill as it's presented, obviously, with the redistribution of ridings in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Hay River, does bring Monfwi under the 25 percent, but I think I err more on the side of reality. I think the commission went out, they did their work and I tend to agree with some of my colleagues that Monfwi does deserve, in fact, another seat and I'd like to support that in happening. However, that also includes another seat for Yellowknife and I think the easy thing to do and the best thing to do, if you went out on the street, Madam Chair, and you talk to 100 people, probably 90 percent of them would say that we do not need any more MLAs in this Legislative Assembly and that would be the consensus out there. Now if we went with the status quo, ended up in court and ended up with four or five new Members for this Legislative Assembly, that to me would be more disturbing than just accepting the recommendations in the report and moving forward.
Mr. Lafferty mentioned in his opening comments that his leadership is looking at the recommendations and willing to accept the recommendations contained in the report. This, Madam Chair, I believe will keep us out of court and it will add another seat in Yellowknife, yes, but I think it's a fair and reasonable balance in allowing the community of Behchoko to have its own seat.
Madam Chair, I just wanted to close with that and look forward to further debate. Thank you.