Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about my home community of Fort Resolution. As many of you know, Fort Resolution is the oldest settlement in the Northwest Territories. It is over 200 years old. Church records describe those early days, but our history is mostly an oral one. Our elders continue to tell us what life was like back then.

Mr. Speaker, because my community is situated on the shore of Great Slave Lake at the mouth of the Slave River, Fort Resolution was the main trading centre for the Northwest Territories. It was an ideal place to do business. Resupply barges or scows, as they were called back then, had to pass through Fort Resolution to connect to communities along the Mackenzie River. Five general stores competed for business at the time.

Mr. Speaker, not only was Fort Resolution a major trading centre at the turn of the century, it is where the church built its first educational centre, known as a convent and it built a huge hospital as a health care centre. Fort Resolution is also along the migration route of ducks and geese as they came north in the spring. Harvesting waterfowl, fish and wildlife has sustained the people of my area for many years. There are families who continue to depend on country foods to eat. It is not a luxury, Mr. Speaker, it is a way of life. Trapping furs is also a way of supporting our families. Mr. Speaker, logging has also been around the community since the turn of the century. Logging supported the first mines here in the north with the supply of timber and firewood to those mines. For the last 25 years logging has been the major employer in Fort Resolution.

In 1961, we first got power. In 1968, was the first time we saw television in the Northwest Territories. There used to be a winter road into the community but in the early 1970's the highway was put in. Fort Resolution continues to grow and grow in more ways than one. They grow together as a community. Mr. Speaker, this is a community that I am very proud to be part of. I am proud to call my home. Proud of the roots my family have there and proud to say that I was chosen by the people to represent them. I seek unanimous consent to continue, Mr. Speaker.