Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I want to start by saying that I have the greatest respect for my colleague from Hay River South, and I do believe that he brings forward this motion with, you know, integrity and the greatest, you know, intention of trying to show leadership and do the right thing. And I do commend him for doing that. And I appreciate all the work that he does for his constituents and so on. But I respectfully disagree. I think there are others that will use this as a reason to say -- I think it feeds into a narrative that, you know, politicians are paid too much, work too little, and are really expendable. And I think others believe that honestly. And we probably all have constituents like that. So I don't want to feed into that narrative, quite frankly. I think we all work very hard here. And, you know, I'm probably not the only MLA that is not doing this for the money because if I wanted more money, I would have gone back to my old job. So I -- but I don't want to feed into that narrative. And we did this in the last Assembly. I think it was the wrong thing to do as well. And in retrospect I don't think I would have done it.
And I think it's also a very delicate time for our government, you know, now that we're into negotiations with Union of Northern Workers, and I think that this bill in general and this amendment will be seen by some as interfering with the collective bargaining process. So for those reasons, Madam Chair -- well, and my colleague across the aisle, the Member for Hay River North, also said that, you know, it's a no winner for politicians. Whatever we decide to try to reopen discussion or debate around their own salary and remuneration, and I don't think we should be doing this, period. But -- and I'll be voting against whatever the outcome is unless my next amendment passes. But in any event, yeah, I want to commend my colleague for bringing this forward, and I think -- I do respect what he does, all the work that he does for his constituents. But I think that this does play into others' narratives around politicians not being very useful or helpful. So I won't be supporting the motion. Thanks, Madam Chair.