Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all today I would like to thank the residents of Hay River South for electing me to the Legislative Assembly for my fifth term. I would like to thank my campaign team for their support and I would like to thank my husband, Rick, and my children, who helped me and supported me in getting here again.
I would like to congratulate all Members who were elected to the 17th Legislative Assembly; particularly
I would like to congratulate my new colleague for Hay River North, Mr. Robert Bouchard. We’ve been getting to know each other a little over the last few weeks and we’ve been having a lot of fun. I may have some competition to being the class heckler here.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to congratulate you on being elected as the Speaker for the 17th Assembly. My
congratulations to Bob McLeod, Premier-elect, for the 17th Assembly, and my congratulations to all of
the new Cabinet Ministers who will be sworn in later today.
Mr. Speaker, I’d also like to use my Member’s statement today to answer a question that has been out there on the minds of a few people, not the least of which are my constituents.
People have been asking five terms, which has never been done before – Mr. Miltenberger and I are the first two to forge that envelope – a woman representing the second largest community in the Northwest Territories, and some people say a couple of brain cells rambling around in my head, so why not run for Cabinet. Maybe people don’t realize this, but we have a convention here in our Assembly of regional representation in Cabinet: two from the north, two from Yellowknife, two from the south, and one Premier at large.
When it was determined that Mr. Miltenberger would not be our new Premier, being from the south I had a choice to make. Mr. Miltenberger had 10 years of experience in the Cabinet. He is known for his amazing work ethic and a very bright man, and a friend to Hay River. Mr. Tom Beaulieu has been my colleague for the last four years but I’ve known him for many years, a former resident of Hay River with family there, also a very competent person who represents a small community. I believe that the small communities should be well represented in our Executive Council. I was very pleased to see
both of these gentlemen representing the Members for Hay River South.
I’m going to have to be the first one to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.