Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like to put a brief comment about some of the provisions in this bill for the record, as I am fully aware that this bill will not be going through normal committee hearing process as it has been in the convention and practice. I just want to speak on not just the provisions in this legislation but the policy changes that will come about in the next Legislature that will help, I think, the work of the Members.

I made a presentation to the commission when it was consulting and taking input from the public. I had the occasion to meet with the commission members and I made some recommendations to the commission, some of which have been adopted and some of which have not. One of the things that I spoke for, and I know that a lot of Members have asked for, and I think it will benefit the work of especially the out-of-town Members, is to increase the constituency budget for out-of-town Members that would enable them to travel to communities a lot more often than they are able to now due to cost limitations.

Mr. Chair, I have to say, and I think a lot of Members here feel the same, one of the real privileges of being an MLA is to be able to travel to all of the communities and to meet our residents in the Territories, get to know them better and to hear from them directly what is on their mind and what the issues they would like us to work on. I believe that, in the interest of good government and in our democratic forms of government, there should be no situation where constituents in any part of the Territories feel that they don't have as good an access to their MLAs as the constituents in ridings like mine, which I could go to every day of the year, unless I am travelling, and I have ready access to. I am in full support of increasing the constituency budget so that the Members that represent especially very remote communities like Trout Lake, Colville Lake or places where it is not convenient or not inexpensive to travel but that is the cost of doing business for the government. I know that we need to put a priority on good spending and be wise and economical in our spending. I am mindful of that. I think there are certain things that you can't put just dollar values on, and access to their legislators by our constituents have to be a top priority.

I also want to put on record my support for increasing the budget to allow for more Pages to visit the Assembly. I know that, whenever even for the children of Yellowknife, in any of the Yellowknife schools, any time that they spend within this Assembly is a meaningful time for them. They will remember them. They always leave here with memories that will last them a lifetime. They always learn something about how our government works and how the procedures go. Often they get to meet the MLAs in person. Whatever we can do to inspire our young and for them to get to know our system of government and the legislators of the time, I think that is money well spent. I think these are some of the things that we can't just concentrate on dollar value. I think it is something that will be beneficial to many more young people from small communities. They will be able to come here more and to get to know us more and to experience firsthand the seat of the government and the government building here. I would just like to state my support for these provisions. I think those are some of the highlights of this legislation.

I know that people out there might be more interested in how much increase we are giving in terms of our own salary and such, but I think it should be made clear that there is not a wholesale increase to the Members' salary in any way. I probably should not venture in there because I don't know. You can never come up with a good answer as to how much an MLA should be paid. But I think it is comparable to the management level salary in the government. I think the only difference we are having with this legislation is that instead of being connected to the collective bargaining through UNW negotiations, we will be tied to the cost of living index, which is a practice that is incorporated in other jurisdictions. I hope that people out there should be able to understand that. I think, for most reasonable people, that should be agreeable.

The only last thing I just want to make a comment and the recommendation that I made to the commission that was not accepted, was a suggestion to incorporate the staff of MLAs into the public service. I do respect the debates we have had on that. I do realize that there are pros and cons to the independence of operations of MLA offices in terms of whether they should be public service and union members or not. I have to tell you that I am still...It is unfortunate, from my point of view, that we couldn't provide more comprehensive or any benefits to the staff that work for the MLAs. I think that it is a unique job. It is a good thing that a lot of people are interested in doing that job, but in this day and age there are not too many jobs in our society that work without any benefits other than what they would get normally under the GNWT health benefits and such. So it's very unfortunate that we were not able to incorporate that, but I do understand and appreciate the need for independence and the need for a sort of separate system of staffing and managing our staff that many Members felt that was more paramount.

I just want to, in the interest of keeping the record straight and just to put down what my thoughts are behind my support in general for most of the provisions that are here. I think, on the whole, it will go to some lengths at improving the work of the MLAs, especially for those Members who are from out of a Yellowknife riding, so let it be written in Hansard that the Member from Yellowknife does support the work and to do work to enhance the working conditions of MLAs from outside of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Those are my comments.