Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the New Deal is proving to be a very good deal.

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The whole concept of the New Deal, Mr. Speaker, was an initiative to promote greater autonomy of the community governments and allow communities to set their own priorities. The calculation that was used for the formula took into consideration the replacement value of a basic package of infrastructure for the community and looked at replacing all of that infrastructure over a 20-year period.

We’ve worked really closely over the last while with the communities to develop long-term goals for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize a former constituent, Samantha Paulette. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to request consent to conclude my statement.

Mr. Speaker, my family couldn’t join us today, so I am especially pleased to see some members from my hometown: Mr. Wayne Vandell, Pascilina Therbert, Hilda Saborin, Theresa Bonnetrouge, Diane Gargan and a former constituent, Albert Canadien is with us today. Welcome to all of you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to welcome all our visitors and all the constituents that are here from the Deh Cho and the community leaders that have joined us.

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank the people in the Deh Cho for giving me the strong showing of support during this past election, this campaign period. I think all Members that have been acclaimed at one time or another will agree that being acclaimed is a lot easier than campaigning, and I certainly appreciate all the people that supported me.

I also wanted to thank all the people from the Hay River Reserve, Enterprise...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am honoured to recognize my wife, Judy, who has come down to help us celebrate the last day of the 15th Assembly. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if everybody recognizes, but Mr. Bell really has a very wild sense of humour. In the last while we’ve been sitting together and we’re just like the two old men from the Muppet Show.

---Laughter

We’ve watched as people stood up to ask questions and tried to predict what they’re going to say and Brendan usually wins and he won more money off me today.

---Laughter

We talk about people’s clothes, we talk…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m going to use my last Member’s statement of this 15th Assembly to reflect on my just over two and a half years here. It has been a privilege, and I mean that sincerely, to serve the people of Inuvik Twin Lakes. I look forward to the opportunity to reaffirm their confidence in me and come back and do some more battle in the 16th.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with my colleagues on this side of the House, especially those in Social Programs. We had many discussions; we had differences of opinion; but you always acted in the best interests of your...

So it’s really been interesting sitting next to him and I wish him all the best.

Mr. Dent is also leaving us and he’s been really a great person to ask for advice on rules and some of the history and I’m sure we’re all going to miss his expert little opinions on a lot of things. Although, I’ve been finding out over the years that some of the rules that he’s been telling me I had to follow were not always correct and were sometimes in his favour. So I wish him all the best.

Mr. Speaker, our Premier is also moving on and I really want to thank him for setting a work ethic that I’ve tried to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wasn’t planning to make a statement today, but I didn’t want to be the odd man out. So in the last day of our session I wanted to say a couple words. First of all, that it’s been a real pleasure to be here for my two terms and it’s been, I guess, quite surprising that we lasted the whole eight years that I’ve been here, because getting into this job was a real eye opener. I looked at it from the outside for quite awhile before I made the decision, along with my family and my friends. When I got here I realized that there was a lot of people here for...