Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I would like to pay tribute to a former constituent of mine who now lives in Hay River. Staff Sergeant Al Kirbyson is well known to many Members, and I would like to point out to Members, Mr. Speaker, that the staff sergeant is known throughout the Northwest Territories as the heart and soul of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This particular individual has shown exactly the nature of the work of a staff sergeant who hopes to have a good team of people to get the very difficult work of police enforcement done. He is a person of great humour and great leadership ability at that level.
Just over a week ago he demonstrated that the old style RCMP officer is something, perhaps, that has been lost, so what he did was to take a whole bunch of people out on the lake, on the land if you like, and the lake, and showed them that when they left Hay River and went to some of the more isolated places in the Northwest Territories they would have to face conditions which they have never faced in their lives before, even as part of their police training.
I understand that this exercise has been very, very widely acknowledged as a good example of something, perhaps, that has been lost over the last 20 years and which he is trying to reintroduce as a way of initiating young police constables into the realities of northern life, and learning about northern lifestyles and learning how to survive and operate on the land.
So today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the work of the old-fashioned, old style policeman such as Al Kirbyson, who has contributed so much to our society in the past. Thank you.