Thank you, Madam Chair. Finally, I get to speak, Members.
---Laughter
Just reflecting upon Bill 14 that is before us maintaining the status quo and rebalancing, I have given it lots of thought and a lot of the recommendations that the commission reports, I am not convinced that they gave it more thought than just to write what they did. Basically, for me, when I look at the numbers, if I don't look at the recommendations but I look at the numbers, the numbers do not say that we need extra seats. That is the way I see it. Unfortunately, the numbers do not say that we need extra seats. Members around this House are saying the opportunity is for Yellowknife to get more seats. As a community MLA, that is how I see it.
This spring, I had a great opportunity to tour Alaska. Our first stop was Juneau, which is the capital. There are 40,000 people there and they have been the capital for a very long time. The biggest city is Anchorage. My numbers might be off, but I think Anchorage is around 40,000 people. The debate has been on for some time to move the capital over to Anchorage. Very often, the people in Juneau and outside of Anchorage, they are all saying you can move the capital to Anchorage, our state politics, the politics that matters for the people, get involved in the city politics. That's exactly the case that we have here. I find that often in this House, we get wrapped up in Yellowknife politics. The reason I see it so clearly is I get wrapped up in it and I get in the momentum and the swing of things. When I am all stressed out and we take a break, I go back to my riding and people really don't care. What they do care about is the programs that they receive. That's important. Why is that program cut? Why didn't you tell us about it? Why didn't you consult with us in this? It's the day-to-day things that matter. As a Regular Member, I spoke lots about housing. That's because that's what people care about. It's about roads, that's what people care about. When it comes to talking about more governance, that's not something we support. When we talk about something as mundane as name changes, they are saying don't worry about that. Take care of the real needs of the people today.