The last four years have seen the troubling brick of the high cost of living weighing down on our northern families, struggling with the power rates or even the cost of fuel. Within this great vice, there is also a huge opportunity. There are the renewable areas such as biomass and solar, which our government hopefully will be looking forward to in the near future. We must not forget, we must look towards population growth.

Everywhere I look around, I’ve seen people struggle trying to get jobs, whether they are summer students, people with disabilities or even seniors. Even the public service jobs that constantly get funded but sit empty is a struggle.

The last few years my favourite people to work with are certainly youth and seniors. To that, I have loved every opportunity to get out to the schools and talk to the kids or even at Avens and visiting. That has brought great enjoyment to my life and sometimes it reminds us how important the work we do here is.

Speaking of which, I was glad to be part of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls motion. I was very excited this House could support that. As a matter of fact, it still stands to the test that this is such an important issue that more work needs to get done. Interestingly enough, no other Legislature, to my knowledge, has passed a similar motion. I think that’s a statement of the type of Legislature we are and the issues we care about. It was an important message and it certainly is an important motion.

The days ahead will see many opportunities for us, and I’m always concerned about the working family. I’m always worried that our government can’t seem to find consumer protection on its agenda. But worrying about our citizens under the context of 911, we finally took the first step this year to say we’re going to do it. I guess, as my colleague said, we’ve devolved and now we will evolve on that issue.

One of the neat things about downtown is the Yellowknife Day Shelter will continue to strive forward. More importantly, I am so excited to see that this term, under Minister Abernethy, they finally heeded some of the goals and concerns of trying to provide proactive programming. I thank him for that. I’m glad. If you could do a little more on the Aurora College file, it would be greatly appreciated.

As I bring this to a close – I know time is running out – I just want to say thank you very much to my wife. If I’m allowed a second or two more, Mr. Speaker, I’m not allowed to hold up props, but in the 12 years I’ve been an MLA, I have always had a picture of my children here as a reminder of why we’re here.

May I leave this thought with each and every one of us: Of course, we are all excited to get on the campaign trail and, obviously, we all hope for the best. But always remind yourself about what’s important. Each day I come here as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, I’ve always had the picture of my two children sit in front of me to remind me about the values we are supposed to represent here. It doesn’t mean we’re perfect. It doesn’t mean we haven’t had troubled days, we’ve moved along, but we always have to ask ourselves what is the touchstone and it always has to have family and friends.

To my constituents, once again, I say thank you; and to my family, it’s always been an honour to have your help and support through this process. Thank you.