Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Monday is a very important day for a number of our NWT communities. This Monday, October 19th , is Election Day for the NWT’s cities,

towns and villages. In the communities of Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik, Norman Wells and Yellowknife, voters will be electing mayors, councillors and in some cases school trustees.

Canadians have not always had the right to vote. Some segments of our population, women and indigenous peoples for instance, have had the right to vote for less time than others, but voting is a right for each and every one of us and it is a right that must not be taken for granted. I believe it’s our duty to exercise our right to vote at every opportunity.

Municipalities and community councils make decisions that affect us, as residents of our communities, on a very personal level. It’s said that municipal government is the government that’s closest to the people, and I believe that. They make decisions about how we live, what services we can expect for our day-to-day activities and what our community will look like.

Mayors and councils can affect us for the better or for the worse if we choose poorly or if we don’t choose at all. Monday is the chance we have to influence the future of our communities, a chance to shape our government, that only comes once every three years.

As well as being a right, voting is a privilege, and a privilege that should not be abused, in my mind. When we don’t take advantage of a privilege that is offered to us, I feel we’re abusing it and it cannot be said strongly enough: get out and vote on Monday if

you live in a city -- that would be Yellowknife -- a town -- Fort Smith, Hay River, Inuvik or Norman Wells -- or a village, and that would be Fort Simpson. We all know what we want in our community, we all have ideas and thoughts about whether things are well run or not and we like to communicate those thoughts and ideas and, yes, complaints to our community leaders. But if you have no hand in the selection of your mayor or your council, you have no right to complain.