Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, November 15, Mr. A. J. Dyer, commonly know as Audie Dyer, passed away in Saskatoon after a lengthy illness. Mr. Dyer was a teacher here in the Northwest Territories for many years. The role he played was getting the original Teacher Education Program off the ground in Yellowknife back in 1969 and then establishing it more firmly in Fort Smith in the fall of 1970.

I wanted to acknowledge what I felt was an important contribution he made to the north to education and his support of the many students he had over the years. Students who he touched personally. I have asked the deputy minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs to attend the funeral today, which started about five minutes ago in Saskatoon.

At the time in my life when I was quite young and somewhat lost and now looking back perhaps I was unable to look clearly and confidently to the future, Audie was there to point the way to promising horizons that many of us never allowed ourselves to see and to enjoy. He instilled in all of us the appreciation for learning and enjoying our own growing confidence. Most of all I think we appreciated how human he was. He was truly a man with no pretensions. Over the years all of us have realized that each of us at different times took Audie away from his own family to attend to our own personal needs. For this and the many other blessings he has given us and for me personally I want to say that we have all grown to love him a great deal and will think of him all the rest of our lives. Thank you.

---Applause