Thank you, Madam Speaker. On October 31st I was asked a question by the honourable Member for Inuvik dealing with the resignation of two NWT directors from the International Committee of the Arctic Winter Games. The question was based on a news report that the members were forced to resign. I replied, "not to my knowledge."
On my return from Iqaluit, it was brought to my attention that a number of Members had a concern about my response to the question by Mr. Koe. Madam Speaker, when the decision was announced to hold the games in Yellowknife, rather than Inuvik, the deputy minister of Municipal and Community Affairs was instructed to examine a number of options on where we go from here.
Those options included having the deputy minister determine whether the directors were prepared to consider resigning their positions on the committee as a sign of protect against the manner in which Inuvik was disqualified as a host community, and the lack of procedures for the host jurisdiction to participate in making the final decision. I subsequently received a letter from Mr. Donald Cooper informing me of his decision to resign from the committee for personal reasons. In addition, Mr. Ian Legaree stated in a letter to the committee that his resignation was in protest of the decision.
Madam Speaker, I want to inform Mr. Koe and Members of this House that my response to his question was not adequate because it responded to the preamble of the question, rather than the question itself. I want to apologize for any misunderstandings my response may have created. Thank you.