Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I guess, first of all, like everyone else, I should commend the commission for going out and taking the time to visit the communities and hear what the community concerns are. I am not totally convinced that all the factors were looked at when the report was compiled, the final report. However, we've had five commissions on electoral boundaries since 1978. The smaller communities, especially the smaller communities such as I have in my riding, have been very clear in terms of what they need to see, the concerns. It's always seen as a case that the commission doesn't seem to hear what they are saying. They put in the report that they heard the communities voice their concerns, but it doesn't seem to be factored into what the final analysis of what should be done. That concerns me.
The smaller communities have been saying consistently that they sometimes feel neglected because of their size, that the larger centres such as Yellowknife has easy access and a lot of the smaller communities are also saying that major changes within this government should not take place until all land claims are settled. That's something we don't seem to be factoring into our report. When we look at electoral boundaries and representation, I certainly take the view that is has to be fair and it has to be balanced. I can't say honestly that I feel I have the same voice as the city of Yellowknife when they have six more Members than I do. I have one crack at what I am going to say, whereas a larger centre such as Yellowknife can say it seven times in a row.
I would never convince anyone in my riding that Yellowknife needs another seat. I would be laughed at. My career would be over in politics, I am sure.
---Laughter
You also have to consider in the smaller ridings where we have a number of communities represented by one MLA, if that Member becomes a Minister, there is no one to cover for him or her. We also have to look at maybe one of the flaws in this commission was that we looked at strictly representation. I am concerned, of course, as I said before, that this report focuses too much on per capita and maybe not as much on what an MLA with more than one community has to go through. Maybe we should have packaged this up with the MLA compensation and benefits where we look at constituency budgets. There is really a difficulty when, I am sure the population factor is
something that has to be taken into consideration. Forty-eight percent of the population in one community, of course, we need to recognize that.
We also have to recognize there's a cost. It's $450,000 for another seat, times two. That's a lot of money. A couple of other people have said that surely 19 MLAs can represent 43,000 people. I have to agree with that. It's really unfair not to take in all the concerns from the communities. If the report is focussed so much, the emphasis is so much on per capita, then why bother with commissions? Why bother having these people go out there? This is the fifth time now to look at what the boundaries should be. The only other time in recent history that we saw a change is when the courts forced us to make a change in the 13th Assembly. So in that sense, it is a waste of money. If we are going to look at strictly numbers, let's not go back out there and start getting everybody's hopes up that we are going to listen to everything because we aren't. We are only listening to numbers, as far as I am concerned.
I keep hearing around the room let's not feel threatened. I have heard, every time I have stated that I supported one side or the other, people say well, then, somebody in Yellowknife is going to take you to court. If it's the other way around, they say the Tlicho is going to take you to court. So how could I not feel threatened when the threat is hanging out there that we are going to end up in court?