Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to, of course, make the case that there is no point of privilege. What we are dealing with here is the fourth year of a drought. We are dealing with the circumstance of extreme weather that has put enormous potential burden on the people of the Northwest Territories at a time when the Assembly wasn’t in session or wasn’t with committee sitting. Yet, we had indicated clearly in the letter of August 31st that we would be bringing this

forward for final decision in this House.

As the government, we are required to act in the best interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. In this case the question was, do we allow the rates to go up because the Public Utilities Board wanted to know what was happening with the charges with low water? Do we let the rates go up 24 percent, or do we intercede to protect the cost of living and protect Northerners from this extreme weather event?

As a government, we acted as a government should, in the best interests of the people of the Northwest Territories. We notified the committee; we honoured

our protocols; and the Member, of course, has that final say here in this House in this session. If it’s determined that we do not have the support of the House for that supplementary appropriation, then the money won’t be spent and the rates will go up 24 percent.

We’ll have that discussion. We have nothing

but the highest regard for the operating of this House, just as we have extreme responsibility as government, as legislators, to respond to critical events in a timely way, in a way that protects their interests and our interests, which is making sure that the cost of living doesn’t go up so high that it makes life in the Northwest Territories unaffordable.

So, there was no impairment of freedom of speech. There was no attempt to obstruct the final decision of this House, which will be to vote on that particular amount of money, and the reason it was brought forward in the interest of the people of the Northwest Territories by the government acting in a timely way at a time when there were no committees sitting, there was no opportunity to wait that long because we had to respond and reply. Thank you.