Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to start by thanking the Speaker for bringing it forward, the idea of guaranteed seats. I want to thank our chair, MLA Green, for stepping forward and asking to be the chair for this committee. I thought it was very appropriate that it would be a woman taking on the chair position. I want to thank our staff, who did more than their share of research, were there on the road, put up with a lot of us, and did great work. Our colleagues, I want to thank them. It was very difficult, I think sometimes. We are talking about women taking over seats, half the seats ideally. Although we are not striving for that, eventually, if we are to be equally represented, in a population of 50 percent, then it would be nice to have 50 percent, so I imagine it's hard for men to actually have those conversations because it means that some of the men in these seats would be looking at losing their seat, so I recognize that.

I also want to thank the MLAs in whose regions we went because we went into their regions trying to talk to women about getting their names on the ballot, and, again, that must have been very difficult for some of those men to accept that and to be humble within that and allow us into their communities to push that because I am not sure, if we were looking a get anyone else, if we were looking for another man, if that would be as welcomed. So I know it was difficult, and I want to thank them.

I really want to say that it's critical, in my opinion it's critical, that women are equally represented. I have heard a lot of different opinions here since I have been here in the last almost four years now, and I know I have had people say to me, men come to me and say: why can't they represent women's issues? I appreciate that men are willing to be our allies. However, I am a strong advocate who says: if you don't live it, you can't know it. You know, there are a lot of issues that I have not experienced in my life, and I do not pretend that I can speak for those people. I try to use their voices whenever possible instead of my own thinking of what they should do, so I am respectful of that process.

The whole key when we started out was to find out if we were going to have special seats or not. It turned into more than that, Mr. Chair. It actually turned into: the number of people who came to these meetings, the number of women, the generation of discussion in itself I think will make a huge difference, and I am hoping that we will see this in the next election. I am looking forward to this election. I think that this committee did an excellent job. I think that it was represented fairly well. I think that it's going to make a difference in this next election.

I also want to say that, this committee -- I have never been a Regular MLA. When I was elected, I first got into a ministry, so I never experienced the committees, but, if this committee was an example of all committees that the MLAs have, then I want to say that that is a true example of consensus government because at no time did our committee argue, fight. It was not one person's voice over others. We were very respectful in it. We did not always get our way, but at no time was there fighting, and there was no showcasing. We all worked together equally in what I feel was a consensus form of government, so I really thank you for that process, as well, and for giving me that experience that I have never experienced here other than that committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.