Yellowknife (Dec 15/99) - Yellowknife South MLA Brendan Bell is already rolling up his sleeves and hitting the books to prepare for his first term in the legislative assembly.

Bell beat out former Yellowknife mayor Pat McMahon by 12 votes, a judicial recount confirmed on Monday.

"I'd like to thank my constituency and all the voters for putting me in the seat and giving me the opportunity to show them what I can do," said Bell.

"I'd like to thank my family for their support and I'd also like to thank my entire team, and all the people that donated time and money to the campaign."

When asked if he knows what he got himself into, the 28-year-old Yellowknife business owner laughed.

"I think I've got some idea and I know there's a lot of work to be done," said Bell.

"I've sat down with other MLAs, both in Yellowknife and outside of Yellowknife, and we all realize the importance of getting to work quickly."

The 14th assembly won't sit until January, but Bell has already started looking at the budget.

He said to offset the projected $51-million deficit, they're going to have to find new money.

"I'm getting prepared to make some suggestions on where we can find new money for various programs and services," said Bell, who is against drastic cutbacks.

"I think everybody realizes there are some inefficiencies and duplications in services, but there's not $51 million there. We have to look at being more efficient, but alleviating the budget strain will happen by going out and getting new money."

He suggested the first place to look is the federal government because there is a national budget surplus right now. Bell says it's a good time to arrange for a more reasonable federal formula finance agreement.

"Improving things depends on getting more funding to areas where we need additional resources, such as education," said Bell.