Masi, Mr. Chair. As you know, we have entered the final year of the 18^th Assembly, and this is the last operations budget from my office prior to the general election and the selection of a new Speaker in the 19^th Assembly. It has been a distinct honour and privilege to serve as your Speaker, and I hope that I have met your expectations in terms of presiding over your debates in a fair and objective manner.

The Legislative Assembly is seeking an operations expenditures appropriation of $22,443,000. This represents an increase of $1,653,000, or a 7.9 percent increase from the 2018-2019 Main Estimates.

Mr. Chair, while this is a significant increase, this additional funding is needed every four years in order to conduct the territorial general election 2019 and for preparing and moving on to the next Assembly.

During this time, your Legislative Assembly has worked to improve communications to reach all peoples of the Northwest Territories. We have taken steps to bring our proceedings, and also the work of committees, to all of the regions of the Northwest Territories in all of our official languages. I will have more to say on that matter shortly, Mr. Chair.

My office has also been working to educate and raise awareness of our system of government and the profile of the Legislative Assembly through the development of two educational videos, enhancement of our annual report, the Mace Outreach Program, youth parliament, and improvements to our website, particularly with respect to committee operations.

This will include providing the funding needed by Elections NWT to undertake the next territorial general election. I would note that the funding being requested by Elections NWT for the 2019 general election is the same level of funding that was approved for the last general election held in 2015. My thanks to the Chief Electoral Officer for the proactive measures that she is undertaking to improve voter engagement and control costs through innovation.

Mr. Chair, we have also begun the important work to increase the representation of women in the Legislative Assembly. A special committee has been struck to examine and provide recommendations on how to achieve this in the years to come. Funding remains in the 2019-2020 budget to complete this important work, and I look forward to tangible results stemming from the committee's work and recommendations in the next election.

During the last sitting, the House took the important step of enacting the Ombud Act. This budget includes funding for the establishment of this office. It is my hope that you will appoint the Northwest Territories' first ombud during this sitting and that the full act will be ready for implementation by the fall of 2019.

Colleagues, this summer, in partnership with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, I will host a first-of-its-kind conference in Canada. I have invited Indigenous Members of Parliament from all of Canada's federal, provincial, and territorial legislatures, as well as some from other Commonwealth countries and the United States, to meet in Yellowknife this summer on and around National Aboriginal Day 2019. The purpose of this conference will be to explore the unique challenges that Indigenous Members of Parliament face when working in what are, essentially, colonial institutions.

The conference will explore the tensions that Indigenous Members often experience when attempting to govern in an adversarial environment, compared to the more consensus-based style of system that they are more accustomed to. It will also explore the compatibility of Indigenous representation in our Parliaments with the inherent right to self-government and whether and how we should change our public institutions to be more reflective of Indigenous culture and traditions. I invite all Members to join me in Yellowknife for this exciting conference this summer, around June 2019. We have an excellent line-up of panellists and keynote speakers, and the reception from around Canada and the world has been outstanding so far.

Colleagues, earlier this year the languages commissioner submitted a report to my office with thoughtful and important recommendations to improve the services that we provide to Members and the public in all of the NWT's official languages. It should be no secret to Members that this is an issue that I am passionate about. Of all the public policy challenges that we face as elected Members, there are few that are as urgent, and as important, as the preservation of our languages. Future generations will judge us by the actions that we take, or fail to take, to save these languages and their link to our cultures. We have a closing window of opportunity to act, colleagues. Once our languages disappear, they are gone forever.

The time has come for bold action from all corners of government and society to turn the tide and change the path of history. The budget before you for adoption today includes a tripling of the Assembly's languages budget to not only implement the recommendations of the languages commissioner, but to go much, much further. This summer, the Assembly will host a language symposium to develop a common set of parliamentary terms in all of our languages. I am fluent in my language, the Tlicho language, yet I still rely heavily on such English terms as "bill," "point of order," or "prorogation." As leaders in this House, we need to set the example for the rest of the territory in terms of language use. We can talk and talk and talk about language revitalization, but until we start to walk that talk, nothing will change the current path we are on. A road or a hospital that does not get built next year can still be built the following year; not so much for our languages. When they are gone, they are gone for good.

I want no part of that legacy. The increase in languages funding this year is not the end. It is my hope and my commitment that, in the years ahead, the Legislative Assembly will have a fully functioning languages bureau to not only support the use of all languages in the written and spoken records of this Assembly, but to live up to the spirit and vision of the Official Languages Act put in place by our predecessors in this House. Our languages should not be "nice to haves." We should not be satisfied with throwing a token word or two of our Indigenous languages into a committee report or a tabled document. The time has come to stop paying lip service to the preservation of our languages and start investing the resources needed to stave off their extinction. I have made it my passion and my mission to speak predominantly in my language in this place, in this House, and I encourage other Members who are fluent in their languages to do the same. They are only equal in status to French and English if we treat them that way.

Colleagues, in closing, I feel obligated to correct the public record with respect to MLA compensation. A recent CBC news article suggested that Members of this House are planning to vote themselves a 20 percent pay increase in the upcoming fiscal year. This is blatantly false. In an age when the term "fake news" has become part of our common vocabulary, it is unfortunate and irresponsible that our public broadcaster has been unable to resist the temptation of "gotcha" journalism and the needless sensationalism. Colleagues, Members of this Legislative Assembly have not voted themselves a pay increase in 20 years, despite recommendations to do so from independent compensation review committees over the years. The 2019-2020 budget continues to hold this line by budgeting no more than a cost-of-living increase, as provided for in the legislation. The increase in the Members' compensation budget for 2019-2020 are related to the transition costs that always come in an election year and are consistent with the recommendations of this and previous years' independent commissions.

Mr. Chair, I will conclude by thanking all Members, my colleagues on the board of management, and the Assembly staff for their contributions and their effort in working towards the efficient operations and delivery of quality services for the Legislative Assembly. This concludes my opening remarks. I am pleased to respond to any questions that Members may have. Mr. Chair.