Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, as well, would like to say a few brief words about the motion which I will, as well, be supporting. We are here in this Legislature today for political closure, as it were. Because the complaint
was dismissed, there is no legal obligation for us to have any say any further. The case was decided when Mr. Hughes dismissed the complaint, but it was thought that it would help us move forward for the remaining 689 days that we have left before us.
My political perspective on this whole thing starts right back when this Assembly was elected. We came here and we picked Cabinet and we started business. It’s been a long, twisting and often bumpy road to get us 25 months into our term. And this is, in my mind, the last, hopefully, chapter of that bumpy road that we have now this report before this House that has been dismissed. We can talk of the content, rationale and justification all we want and Members have done that, as is their right, but the reality for us in the North is that we have very few months left. This is an important issue to put behind us. A decision has been made and now we have to look forward at the very, very many things we have to do.
I have been in this House, as well, over 14 years and there are definitely peaks and valleys in this business. It is very overwhelming at times. You wonder why you are here and what you’re doing. Our job today, I believe, is to politically bring closure to this. A decision had been done. Whether we say yes or no that we don’t agree, the reality is the decision is done because there was no finding. There was no other consequence or punishment being recommended by Mr. Hughes.
So I hope we can all, once we have our say here today, agree that we are going to look for the future and the things we have to do with rate reviews, energy, cost of living, housing, education, health, you name it. So I will be accepting this report and I will be looking to the future. Thank you.