Thank you, Madam Chair. As Mr. Menicoche indicated, we had a pretty lively debate the last time we talked about this, and I still consistently state my position that here we’re having the recommendations looking at the forced marriages. Nobody wants to get married in this forced marriage, you know, Weledeh and Tu Nedhe. You put them together. They don’t want to be together. This is what we’re looking at, and I’ve always said that we’re talking about something very special and unique in the Northwest Territories. We’re talking about a culture and a nation of people that’s very special. If it was different, if we were somewhere maybe, but here in the Northwest Territories we are talking about this special relationship we have in the North. The culture and the nation of a people come from this land in that area and they have their own way. Sometimes that trumps the cost of living here in the North, the economic cost factors to that.

For me, I see this as a means not to disrespect the nation of people, the culture, and to honour and respect that. Otherwise, what could be said about

other regions and cultures in the North? We don’t hold them to the degree that we think they should be held. The Tlicho have stated clearly, as it shows in the books, they need an additional MLA, so for me, it needs to be, I guess, respected and listen to what the people and what their elders are saying. At first I really didn’t think that we needed 21, but when I looked at the 19 and I looked at some of the issues, then I said, no, we’ve got to go to 21. I’m going to support the motion because I think that’s the right way to go based on what I’ve been reading, reviewing and what I’ve been hearing that anytime we try to look at a nation of people or culture with some significance to it, we need to be very careful how we deal with these types of issues. I’m going to be supporting the motion.