Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I've been listening carefully as everyone has been talking this afternoon and this is clearly a tough one, a tough discussion for many individuals. I hear two conversations that I believe are separate conversations but they're being morphed into one, and those are the right of individuals to run for election, but also the major problem we have here in the Northwest Territories of domestic violence. I truly appreciate the work that the committee did, and I know what they did was not easy and they put their hearts and souls into this report, and I truly appreciate that, but at the end of the day, I'm not prepared to take away the ability of residents to choose who they want to vote for, and I also don't want to penalize or punish somebody for something that they've already been convicted for and done their time and paid their debt to society.

That in no way, shape, or form changes how I feel about domestic violence in the Northwest Territories or my desire to fight and combat domestic violence. It is a major problem in this territory, and I would be disappointed if anybody would suggest that we don't care about domestic violence in this House if we don't support this recommendation. I find that deeply troubling.

I've listened to people in this House talk both today and at other times, and this House cares and is committed to doing work to combat domestic violence. Do we do enough? No. Do we need to do more? Yes. As a House of 19 can we do better? Certainly. Should we? Absolutely, and I think we need to continue to have this dialogue around domestic violence here in the Northwest Territories.

One of the things we know about domestic violence is not enough people talk about it. Not enough people question it. Not enough people challenge those who might be committing acts of domestic violence.

I think today in this House we've heard a real desire to talk about it, to start working together to find more solutions at a community, at a regional, at a personal level, and I think that's important and I think that's something we could take away from today and I feel we should and I feel we can, but it doesn't change the fact that I can't support this motion as it's written. I can't support this recommendation.

I think people need the ability to choose and I think, once you've paid for your crime, you should have the opportunity to heal and move forward.

So I thank the Members for the work they did on this. I know it wasn't easy; I know they poured their hearts and souls into this. We simply have a disagreement that this is the right forum to address domestic violence in this territory, and I look forward to working with all my colleagues in this House as we work to strengthen our response and our prevention and work with our residents, Aboriginal governments, community governments, people to combat domestic violence in this territory. Thank you.