Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to welcome all our visitors and all the constituents that are here from the Deh Cho and the community leaders that have joined us.

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank the people in the Deh Cho for giving me the strong showing of support during this past election, this campaign period. I think all Members that have been acclaimed at one time or another will agree that being acclaimed is a lot easier than campaigning, and I certainly appreciate all the people that supported me.

I also wanted to thank all the people from the Hay River Reserve, Enterprise, Kakisa and Fort Providence that have called me over the last few days offering their support and congratulations. I certainly appreciate it. We had a class come in from Fort Providence to take part in the swearing in. The adult education class came in. I was very happy to see them and I was very glad that they came.

I also want to thank the Members that supported me for being re-elected into Cabinet. I want to thank, also, all the Members that put their name forward for a seat in Cabinet. You had a very strong contingent seeking seats in Cabinet. Unfortunately, there's only six seats and I think any one of the Members that put their name forward could have done a good job. All came with really strong credentials.

Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to inform Members and people across the North that I continue to have an open door policy. I like to have good, strong communication links with the communities, with the Members and people in my riding, and that includes you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly will do everything in my power to support you.

Eight years ago I ran for the position of MLA. I wanted to see a better quality of life in our communities for our children, and that's a goal I'll continue to work towards. I also want to work harder to improve the lines of communication with the communities I represent, and I intend to go into all the communities in the next little while, starting with Kakisa next week. I really need to have that communication and stay in touch with my constituents.

I wanted to also take this opportunity to thank some of the former Members that are not coming back. I really

appreciated working with Premier Joe Handley, Brendan Bell, Charles Dent and Bill Braden. I want to wish them luck on their endeavours.

I also wanted to say thank you to my family.