Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, will be supporting the motion that is before us today. I will get back to a few things I mentioned during my Member's statement as a reason why I support this motion. Obviously, I am in favour of tax credits. This is one way I think that the federal government and our

territorial government can realize that we can give people who want to live here or relocate here an advantage for coming north and living in the North. I think, as I mentioned, arctic sovereignty is a big issue nowadays. It is important that we try to attract and retain people to live here.

The other big reason is the increase is overdue, in my mind, Mr. Speaker. In 1988 and again in 2003, figures and statistics will clearly show that the Northwest Territories tax filers paid more federal income tax as a proportion of total income than the average Canadian did. If that doesn't tell us that this deduction increase is long overdue, then nothing else will, Mr. Speaker. I would encourage everyone to support this motion and to work with our other two sister territories to get this on the agenda in Ottawa and to support our new Member of Parliament, Mr. Bevington, in his pursuit to have this increase. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause