Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During this past winter, Yellowknife schools held science fairs. This past Monday, a regional science fair was held at the William

MacDonald Junior High School where the winners from the individual school fairs were able to demonstrate their science projects.

The regional science fair has been held for a number of years and the sophistication of the projects is increasing each time. There is a certain cost to running science fairs, however. Unfortunately, this year, the fair lost its funding from the NWT Science Institute and was nearly cancelled as a result. However, through the efforts of teachers from various schools who did not want to see this valuable and worthwhile learning experience disbanded, the science fair was held.

I would like to commend and congratulate those teachers and acknowledge the efforts of all staff from all schools; the volunteers from the community who were judges, including a number of staff from the public service, some of whom work here at the Legislative Assembly; the territorial Department of Transportation, who printed certificates for the entrants; and, the many Yellowknife businesses who donated prizes.

I would like to mention the first prize winners in each grade: grade 4 was Elliot Nguyen; grade 5, Kristy Colman; grade 6, John Zaozirny; grade 7, Becky White; grade 8, John Seeton; grade 9, Ricky Chan. Unfortunately, there were no funds to send the winners to the Canada-wide science fair and I hope this can be rectified in the future. I would like to congratulate all those students who participated in the 1996 science fair.

--- Applause