Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good morning, Mr. Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly. Today I would like to give an update on the Small Boat Safety Awareness Program. This will be the third year the Department of Transportation has delivered the program in the Northwest Territories on behalf of the Canadian Coast Guard.

The Small Boat Safety Awareness Program is a national public education initiative to promote small boat safety. The Department of Transportation takes a special interest in getting the program out to the communities because, year after year, the Northwest Territories has had the highest number of drowning fatalities per capita in Canada.

To gain the widest participation, the program enlists the help of federal, territorial and volunteer staff in the communities. The program's partners include the Departments of Municipal and Community Affairs; Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development; National Defence; local detachments of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as its Federal Enforcement Section; the Canadian Red Cross; Sports North; the NWT Canoeing Association and the City of Yellowknife Fire Department.

A training seminar is held each spring to teach the program's many partners in the proper use of boating safety equipment, safe loading limits for passengers and cargo and the use of a boat's power rating to match boat and motor properly. Over the boating season, the instructors take the boating safety message to public schools, hunters and trappers associations, boating clubs and many other interested community groups.

Once again, the target audience in 1997 will be school age children; teaching the next generation about boating safety as they grow up. This year's program will emphasize that most of our boating fatalities occur to young men between 18 and 35 years of age and, all too often, involve the use of alcohol.

In its first two years of operation, the Small Boat Safety Awareness Program has visited close to 50 communities and reached almost half of the population of the Northwest Territories. The success of the program can be seen in community interest for greater involvement and, more and more, we will see communities taking the lead in promoting water safety.

This year, the Small Boat Safety Awareness Program introduces its mascot, Pukta, the Water Safety Bear. I am proud to say that the idea of incorporating a northern mascot in the program was developed by our Department of Transportation. Pukta has since been adopted by the Canadian Coast Guard in its water safety programs across Canada. I would like to congratulate Sarah Ittinuar of Rankin Inlet for naming Pukta and winning the "Name the Mascot" contest. Pukta means "to float" in Inuktitut.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Members are with me in hoping for an accident free boating season this year. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

-- Applause