The Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the people of Range Lake for trusting me with their confidence to represent them in the 17th Assembly.

More importantly, I would like to thank my wife, Cindy, and my two boys Tanner and Bronson, for sacrificing much time and energy during the electoral process. It is never an easy journey to get here, believe me.

As a pharmacist, I have been serving the needs of health care for thousands and thousands of Northerners for almost two decades and I have been honoured to do so. My commitment to being amongst you here today is to serve to the best of my ability the people of Range Lake, but more importantly, all the people of the Northwest Territories. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of the Mackenzie Delta for their continuous support as the Member of the Legislative Assembly. I’d also like to thank my family for their continuous support.

Also, I’d like to congratulate yourself, Mr. Speaker, and also the Premier, Mr. McLeod, and our Cabinet Members and the other MLAs here. I look forward to working with you all in a positive relationship and

the staff of the Legislative Assembly. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

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.

As we move forward, I look forward to using my experience, my 16 years of experience in this Assembly to back up Regular Members, Cabinet Ministers. I’m looking forward to a term where Regular Members can become even more involved in the roles of the Assembly and we can work together more collaboratively.

I did want to put that explanation on the record today and say that I do appreciate having my voice on this side of the House as well. There are lots of pros and cons to being in the Executive Council. One of the pros to being a Regular Member is that you can stand up in the House and you can express your opinion on behalf of your constituents on any subject and I value that very greatly.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I’d like to tell the audience in the House, if you could turn your phones off. There’s no cellular service in the House. Moving on. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.