Thank you, Mr. Chair. When this was first brought to us as Members of the Legislative Assembly, I did talk a little bit more to the Member from Kam Lake, who was bringing this forward. At that time, my biggest concern was around the money. Within this, what will be coming up later, is that introducing that, if this goes through, that there would be an extra $30,000 that can be utilized a year before the election or during the year of the election. I have always been about fairness and I have tried to maintain that fairness throughout all of my work here at the Legislative Assembly. This doesn't make it fair. When you have an extra $30,000, they have an extra year to campaign. The Legislative Assembly has to be open to as many people as possible.
When I came in here, not only was I a woman, I was also a woman of poverty. To be able to just find the money that it took to run the election on its own meant that I used every cent in my savings. It meant that I racked up a Visa to the maximum. In fact, I couldn't even spend the amount of money because I didn't have it.
If we do this, my biggest concern is now that somebody would have an advantage. They would have up to possibly $60,000 to be able to campaign. That is not accessible for people in poverty. We have to be accessible in this government. We have to allow people to be able to get into these seats. That $60,000 is not going to do it.
That was my major concern. However, I was open to looking at the idea of the party system within here, but I put it on my Facebook because I decided that it was something that I needed to hear from the people. I didn't realize how many comments I would get; not as many on my Facebook, but I had phone calls all weekend from people saying "Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no." All it told me was that this is a huge issue. This isn't a small issue, Mr. Chair. People want a say in this. People are afraid. They want to have a say.
I think that, one, I can't agree with the spending. Two, we need to have a plebiscite on this. Therefore, because of that, I cannot support this amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.