Merci, Monsieur le President.

[Translation] Yellowknife MLAs met recently with the trustees of Yellowknife Catholic Schools and Yellowknife Education District No. 1 and the Commission scolaire francophone des Territories du Nord-Ouest.

The City of Yellowknife held a plebiscite on extending the term of office for councillors to four years from three. Of the Yellowknife voters who voted, 60.6 percent were in favour. Yellowknife City Council subsequently completed passage of a bylaw to extend the term of office for mayor and council to four years.

As all Yellowknife MLAs now know, the term of office for city council and our district education authorities are now out of sync. District education authorities have held their elections at the same time, piggybacking on to the city's efforts and processes. The Yellowknife district education authorities have to hold their own elections; the cost will be approximately $65,000 or more in terms of advertising, hiring workers, and other expenses. I am sure we would all rather see that funding spent on our children's education rather than running a separate election.

For the CSFTNO, the situation is more interesting in that half of its commissaires are from Yellowknife, where there is now a four-year term for our local government, and the other half are from Hay River, where there is a three-year term. CSFTNO holds its own elections, if necessary, at its schools so there is no additional cost, but an obvious need for coordination. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted