Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mushers from all over Canada and the United States...Last year, we had a musher from Europe. This year, we have a lady musher from France who will be racing for the first time in Canada. She is going to be racing further...This is kind of a training run for her. She will be going to South America. There are even races being held in the Andes Mountains of South America, all of which indicates the general increase in both sponsorship and sled dog racing as a spectator sport.

We have 12 teams racing that start off at 12:30 today and they will run this 50-mile course for the next three days. It's nice to see, Mr. Speaker, that this tradition continues. Although dogs are not used on the trapline as they once were, dogs still play an important part in our northern culture and I want to take this opportunity to wish all of the visitors, both from the United States and from Europe, and certainly our Yellowknife people, and we have people from Fort Smith racing, all the best and a safe competition over the next three days.

---Applause