Thank you, Madam Chair. First let me again also have my thanks to Honourable Justice John Vertes, Eddie Erasmus and Rod O'Brien who put a lot of work into travelling and hearing from the people of the Northwest Territories and putting together this commission report. I think it was a very useful exercise.
As has been indicated here by a number of other Members, in hindsight maybe we should have sat down and talked about some more constraints on the commission in terms of limiting the number of seats and limiting the growth in government. I think that's certainly something that we need to take into account and we task the next Electoral Boundaries Commission in the number of years going forward. I think that there's a lot of merit in that.
Madam Chair, let me say that I am in support of this commission's report and I'll tell you that the primary reason for this, and I have had the benefit I guess that maybe not all Members have had to the same extent, but I've had the benefit to travel extensively with the Member in the Tlicho region. I've listened to people very passionately and eloquently articulate their desire for additional representation. I think it's more than the numbers, Madam Chair. They've made a very compelling argument, in my mind, as has the Member, that when we talk about the rural and urban dynamics in this House, we know that Members who represent one community or part of a community have a set of challenges. Those who represent a number of other communities, smaller communities, have an entirely different set of challenges. I can tell you that I believe that the Member for Monfwi has both of those sets of challenges. I think the dynamic in Behchoko has changed over a number of years. I think the economy has grown and matured; I think there are a number of urban realities and challenges. I think eventually Behchoko will be a tax-based municipality because it already has the burden that a number of other
tax-based municipalities have. It has a number of people and growing and, in fact, I believe that the population estimates that we have that we've discussed don't adequately represent the actual size of that community.
I've talked to a number of people, the local leadership, Chief Lafferty, and many of the people who I consider to be authorities on the matter would tell you that there are certainly close to 2,000 people in that community. I've spent some time there, I've had a chance to travel around and I believe it, Madam Chair, but yet with all of the urban challenges in Behchoko, to travel in the smaller outlying Tlicho communities is to see the rural challenges and to see communities who are very traditional, as the Member has indicated, don't have the same access, are doing a very good job, in my opinion, of maintaining their culture, their respect for the land, maintaining their spirituality.
I think in this region the motto "Strong Like Two People" continues to come to mind. I think that is very much embodied in the current Member who I think has attributes that respect both of those needs in his community to create economic opportunities for his people, and yet to hold on and maintain the traditions of the past. I think we need to give this region every opportunity to do that. I think a seat for Behchoko is warranted, a separate seat, because I do think the challenges are so much different than those in the outlying regions of the communities, and it's for that reason and not because I think that Yellowknife needs another seat or is under-represented, it's for that region and that reason that I certainly support an additional seat for Monfwi.
Having said that, I understand that to diminish the representation in Yellowknife is problematic and I think will inevitably lead to a court challenge that will determine that we need to see another Yellowknife seat. So my belief is that we can pay the money and go to court and end up with two seats, or we can do what I think is the right thing and give Monfwi a seat. I think in future there will be other regions that need seats, we have to respect that, but I do think that we should sit down and talk about limiting the size and growth of government, however, Madam Chair.
Let me say, I've also taken the chance and the opportunity to look at a lot of the jurisprudence. I am aware that our Court of Appeal, the Alberta Court of Appeal has talked about the difference between having a commission of elected officials sit down to decide how many seats they need and have, an independent commission do their work, and obviously, not surprisingly, they've put a lot of weight in an independent commission. I'd look at the membership of our commission, I know that they've done some good thorough work and that has a lot of weight with me. I give that, Madam Chair, a lot of credence. I can also say that in the Maritimes and a couple of other jurisdictions, the 25 percent rule of thumb is changing and other jurisdictions are looking, and there is some precedent for this, at a 20 percent rule of thumb. We may be moving in that direction. So, Madam Chair, let me say I think in future we do need to constrain the growth in government and we need to give maybe some more explicit direction to a commission, but we taxed this commission to go out and hear from people and do a job to the best of its ability. I think it has done that and I think the Tlicho people deserve an additional seat. Therefore, I will be supporting the recommendations of the commission to add two seats. Thank you, Madam Chair.