Thank you, Madam Chair. The motion here, and I want to say to Mr. Ramsay and Members of this House here that, Madam Chair, we have the privilege to bring issues forward even to the point of bringing motions forward, and, as Members, we have the ability to speak on it. So I wanted to thank Mr. Ramsay in terms of giving us this opportunity this afternoon and to bring a motion forward to the House here.

Madam Chair, I agree with Mr. Ramsay on the principle of what he's saying, however, I think there's other means, as Ms. Lee talked about, in terms of achieving those principles by working with the departments and sending a clear message out there. By having this motion come forward, I think that's going to, myself, because I talk about my region, especially about the human resource offices and people I talk to until I'm blue in the face, you know, how our region wants to be on its own and how the region wants to obtain some autonomy in terms of how we work with our own people and the challenge there for us. Madam Chair, I'm afraid that the consequences, more so in terms of it might cost us more in terms of moving this motion forward with our support. I'm a big advocate in terms of our region receiving human resource opportunities and career advancement for our own people in our region and having this come close to our home and having it come close to our people where they have an opportunity. So I'm in the position right now to not support this motion. I'm going to continue working with the department and look at what can be done. I'm hoping that we can work to a place where all regions are treated equally in terms of how the benefits are and the careers, and the departments are working with human resources for their own region and as much as any other region. Certainly the Sahtu would like to see a department that is treating its employees in a respectful manner in terms of the type of work that they're going to do in government. Madam Chair, the human resource office, when I first understood how it's going to be affected in our region, I had a number of inquiries from my region and over the years the inquiries have gotten a lot quieter and the office seems to be doing some things that are improving. So, Madam Chair, I just wanted to thank Mr. Ramsay for bringing this motion forward, but I will not support this motion.