I really can't see adding two extra seats. You know we go around and we say, well, we're not going to give you any more money for your transition house, or we're cutting your money for this. Oh and by the way,
we're adding two seats and $1 million. People don't like that. I mean we're constantly saying we're going to cut programs and cut your funding or make them wait for their funding, and to add two seats...Now, I respect the work that the commission had to do. In the case of the riding in Inuvik, I don't really think that they've done their homework. I don't agree with the lines that they drew. There's an historical boundary in Inuvik that's recognized by the municipality and it's a boundary that the municipality uses in all their municipal elections. So in that regard, I don't agree with the line that they drew in Inuvik. There's going to be a whole pile of development going on on the other side of town. They didn't take that into consideration.
But the bottom line is, Madam Chair, I look at the numbers and the numbers aren't huge. For us to sit here, and I'm sure people out there are saying well, don't you guys have anything better to talk about? I look at the numbers here; 42,000 people, 19 of us. I don't think there's any need to add any more seats to anywhere and the argument that well, if they get one, we get one, I don't believe we're under-represented, I don't care what the numbers say, but I don't believe we're under-represented. If you're under-represented, then we're not doing our job. We don't need to have the government get any bigger. We're always on about the size of the public service and all the other increases in the government budget, and yet we sit here. The bottom line, Madam Chair, is I don't think we're under-represented.
I respect the fact that the commission went out there and they visited the communities. They lobbied harder in some communities than others. But I really don't believe we should even consider adding more seats. If they want to say well, we're going to take this to court because we're plus or minus 25 percent or whatever for the number, but the bottom line is we've got to realistic here and look at the overall numbers and look at the number of constituents we have in each riding and leave it at that. Thank you.