Mr. Chairman, as noted by the Minister in his opening comments, the NWT Judicial Remuneration Commission has been obliged to sit every three years to look at judges' salaries and benefits. It's going to be extended to every four years now, so we will, to some extent, get some more economy from the cost of this commission. That's really the point why I wanted to put a couple of things on record, Mr. Chair.

In 2001, as the Minister advised, this commission wracked up a bill of $200,000, and in 2004 the cost was over $300,000. I certainly don't want to get myself on the bad side of any judges, Mr. Chairman, but spending this amount of taxpayers' money to determine the salaries and benefits of this very necessary part of our democratic system seems to me excessive. I would welcome any stage, any step that could be taken to realistically control this expense and yet give us the confidence to know that judges in the NWT have been fairly paid and yet respecting the independence that they need to have. If I have a question here, Mr. Chairman, it is, aside from going from a three to a four-year period for striking this commission, are there any other criteria or guidelines that we have been looking at to make what -- again, it's my opinion -- is an excessive cost for determining this pay scale, Mr. Chairman?