Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This will also be a good news statement, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Saturday, I was at the airport seeing off some of our NWT athletes to compete in the 15th Canada Winter Games now being held in Grande Prairie and in Jasper concurrently. Over the next week or so, there will be some 3,000 athletes from across Canada joining in the winter-type sports for gold, silver and bronze medals. We, as parents, hope that some of the athletes are there for the competitive challenge that these events will allow. We won't be able to win all the medals, Mr. Speaker, but the athletes intend to put their best foot forward. I heard some on the radio this morning talking about challenging themselves to do their personal best and that is to be commended. The NWT team will be competing in most of the winter games, including skiing, speedskating, short and long distance speedskating, rifle and air pistol shooting. I was only able to watch a short segment of the opening ceremonies on the television on Sunday that saw the Prime Minister coming in on a chairlift and the Alberta Premier being carried in on a dog team to the arenas and, Mr. Speaker, it was quite an opening ceremony. Most of all, we, here in Yellowknife, are particularly proud to have young Jamie Wainwright carrying the NWT theme colours into the Grande Prairie arena leading the athletes from across the Northwest Territories.
The NWT starts its competitions today and I would like to wish them all the best of luck for good, clean and safe competitions. While we all hope for gold, we must hope even more for good sportsmanship first and the medals will follow. We all know that our young people will not let us down; they will make us very proud of them. Good luck to them.