Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to follow up on the statement made by my colleague from Hay River yesterday. There is no question that it's not a good reflection on the House when the presence or absence of Members in the Chamber or in committees take up media time, not what we get done here in the House.

Nevertheless, this has been a problem for the last long while and it's now public, and the onus is on all of us to work together to improve this situation.

Mr. Speaker, we may have to look at going back to the system where we get paid by meetings we attend...

---Applause

...I personally don't like that because I believe the work we are doing encompasses much more than what we do in this House. Nevertheless, the work here and in our committees is absolutely vital to our work. Being such a small group, one or two of us not being here could really bring the proceedings to a halt.

Perhaps we should look at posting a presence and absence of MLAs at committees meetings, and reasons for them, on the Legislative Assembly web site daily; and during sessions, the reasons for absence could be stated for the record, Mr. Speaker.

I believe the people have to ask these questions, and the constituency of Range Lake, I want to tell them that it's been a long-standing practice of mine to tell them my schedules and the goings on in my office on the web site throughout the year. During session, I have updates daily in the House about what I am saying and, obviously, if I am not here, I can't be saying those things.Mr. Speaker, I have been here everyday. I want to communicate to my constituents that I have been here everyday during this session, and these past two weeks have been especially busy as we have been operating under extended hours. I can also tell them that this week has been an especially busy week with the long-standing hours. I have been here until at least 10:00 every night....