…I just want to stand up and sing a good song. Mr. Speaker, I want to take the first available opportunity today at the reconvening of session to thank a number of people.

Leading up to the Christmas break, we had the Minister of Justice, the Honourable Charles Dent, come to Hay River to meet with community leaders with respect to plans for changes in justice services in Hay River.

Subsequent to that, Premier Joe Handley also came to Hay River to meet about numerous items; the most pressing ones being the impact of justice changes in Hay River.

From those meetings, a plan emerged and presentations were developed with respect to proposed changes. The work that went into these presentations was the culmination of many hours behind the scenes by the Hay River MLAs, a group of stakeholders, and affected parties in Hay River. I want to thank them for the immense amount of time that these people dedicated to pull questions and information together that ultimately affected a positive outcome. I want to thank the very capable research staff of the Legislative Assembly and the people in the Department of Justice who responded to our many questions. I want to thank the tireless efforts of my constituency assistant, Wendy Morgan, for pulling all that information together in an easily accessible format. I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Villeneuve from Tu Nedhe, for his initial visit to staff and facilities in Hay River and his subsequent attendance with our colleague, Mr. Menicoche from Nahendeh, during the week of the Dene leaders' meeting.

After what seemed like a long wait over the holidays, I had the opportunity to meet with all the Regular Members of the Assembly, as well. I would also like to thank the UNW for their support, and for the many letters that came in from other communities and regions from across the Territories.

The results of these deliberations are now publicly known through the announcement of Minister Dent, that the planned court registries closure in Hay River has been withdrawn. These valuable services and jobs will remain south of the lake at the Hay River courthouse. For this I would like to thank all my colleagues for their support -- Premier Handley, Minister Dent and the Cabinet -- for listening and responding to our arguments.

However, Mr. Speaker, I would like to characterize this good news as round one, and I look forward to the forum this session will provide for dialogue that will reveal and probe the good news and allow for debate on other issues which will remain outstanding in our community for now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause