Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin I'd just like to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing the motion forward to bring out a good discussion and debate, which you are seeing before the House here and a lot of good points from both sides, actually.
Upon the notice of motion that was given last week, I almost immediately sent out e-mails and posted on social media to get feedback from residents of the Northwest Territories but also constituents from Inuvik. I heard a lot of good points for, and a lot were against. Some of the arguments that were for supporting this motion were for continuity within this government, but agree this government is doing a lot of good things and with a lot of the action plans coming up and implementing devolution is moving forward. Also, some people mentioned the cost savings that we'd have if the government moved to every five years, we wouldn't have to be putting the money into elections a lot sooner, rather than later, and we also got support that it allowed this government the option to extend. Just having that option for the 17th Legislative Assembly knowing full well in the NWT Act it does state that for future Legislative Assemblies of this government.
However, those that supported it, out of the numerous numbers that supported the concept of it, were just two constituents from back home. The majority of e-mails, the majority of phone calls, texts, responses to social media did not support the motion, mainly because there was a furthermore that was initially put into the motion and that furthermore was amended just recently today. So we're speaking about that amended motion now and that had the fixed date of extending to October 2016. After speaking to a lot of the constituents, there was a lot of options that were brought forward, too, such as having an early election, having it three months, two months sooner, talked about having elections in the springtime and also maybe six months later, having it in the springtime, it doesn't have to be a fixed date of putting it a year further.
However, the majority of people that I spoke to, and these are some very respected individuals in the community and also some leaders that I spoke to, they said just leave it the same, you know, status quo doesn't need to change, further governments can make those decisions when they happen. So the majority of the information I got was status quo and I'd like to thank all the constituents as well as residents of the Northwest Territories who did respond and send feedback in to me and to the office here.
Some of the comments that I did get was things like when residents last went to the polls, it was to elect MLAs for a four-year term in the 17th Legislative Assembly and they also talked about people of the NWT are capable of voting more than once in a month. They have that ability to choose a responsible government, whether it's territorially or municipally.
Just closing off, I want to say that even with the amended motion, the motion still speaks to the fact that if this goes through and there is an amendment to the NWT Act that this government, any Member of this Legislative Assembly can then bring forth a motion to extend our term, or extend it by however many months, and Mr. Bromley did speak to earlier, whether it's a year, six months, three months, a month, it just doesn't have that clarity and having this option for this government knowing full well a lot of people were mentioning that when we all got elected we knew that there was going to be a conflict in 2015 and some jurisdictions did address that. However, on this particular vote to the motion, I stated clearly right from the beginning that I will be voting with the voice of the people that I spoke to, the constituents, the people that did vote me in here, as well as residents of the Northwest Territories that all Members of this Legislative Assembly do represent because we do make decisions territorially with the territorial programs, projects. So with that, I do believe my constituents spoke up and a lot of concerned residents of the Northwest Territories spoke up and in that they don't support the motion as is, even the amended motion, because the motion still gives this government the opportunity to bring a motion further down the road to look at extending our term.
With that said, my vote is with the people, the constituents that I represent and some of the concerned residents of the Northwest Territories and I cannot be in favour of this motion. Thank you.