No, we have not earmarked any additional financial resources to the exercise that took place in Hay River in May. The results of completing the plans that evolved from that are expected in July. Hopefully, some sort of a major, strategic plan will evolve from it. It is a planning exercise that is half complete. The discussions took place. We are compiling whatever comes out of there and whatever the proposal that has been developed by the department will be coming to me and I will share it with the MLAs. Once that process is done, then we could see if there are any dollar signs there. Perhaps something in a later budget. There is nothing in this budget here that will accommodate the discussion that took place. We see the strategic planning to take a little longer. It will come later on if there is a request for any additional dollars, if we have any. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is a concern to us as well. Once the strategic planning we have undertaken is complete, we will have to pursue that at the Arctic Winter Games International Committee level. As I said, we have two representatives on that committee. Whatever concerns evolve out of the strategic planning, we will discuss these with our representative and perhaps we could relay our concerns to their meeting.

I think it is at that level where we have to express these concerns. At the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, as a Minister, I was at one of the meetings with all of the other Ministers. This was a big concern, that only certain large communities that have three or four arenas and four or five gyms could be the only place where we could have these games, because it has grown so big. Not many places in the Northwest Territories could provide that except for Yellowknife, perhaps. It is a concern to us and the other jurisdictions as well. If we come out with a good plan of action of how to not only complain about it, but put some of our own positive suggestions forward. Hopefully, we are moving towards that through the strategic planning process here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a concern similar to Mr. Nitah, where some of the smaller communities cannot go to some of these games. There is a problem when you have an all-star team from the Northwest Territories which consists of players that have not won a territorial championship. When there is a team that stays home that wins a territorial championship, there is a selection from a different community, a larger community. The selection is done by people who are from all parts of the Northwest Territories, have never seen these players before, and some of them are never given the chance to try out. I have a concern with that.

This happened a number of years ago, and I think someone else mentioned it in the last sitting. What Sport North should be doing is they should be going to the territorial championship teams and saying look, you are our best team in the Northwest Territories. You select a few players from some of the other communities so we can spread out membership in the teams. I think we can sit down and should be able to get something constructive for all the interested members, along with the Sport North group there.

Another thing is this Aboriginal Sport Circle. When I heard about how they were going to set up the indigenous games down in Alberta for the next Arctic Winter Games, I was really disappointed in how they were selecting the teams to represent the territories. What they did was say you and you bring this team. You bring that team. They do not go by which teams are going to be the best team to represent the Territories. They just want representation from every community, but what they are doing is setting up some chance for failure. I was involved in one of the games. I am sure a few of the Members here might have been, where the way they did the selection of teams was just how I said. There is nobody from Inuvik, nobody from Fort Resolution, nobody from Fort Providence, so you guys have these sports. Rae-Edzo had all the championship soccer teams. They had all the championship volleyball teams. They could only bring one team each.

There was a good baseball team in Hay River. They could not bring that team because they were not selected for baseball. Some other team was selected for baseball. When I went out to support one of my teams from the Northwest Territories, I was watching our team get slaughtered. The score was ridiculous. There are no mercy rules, either.

We set up our teams for failure. We cannot continue to do these things. Because of that, I support Mr. McLeod in saying why can we not put an aboriginal person in Sport North along with who we have there already, and maybe just look at the Aboriginal Sports Circle again? Is it the right thing we are doing? What kind of mandate do we have? Who are they representing? I know that they have been having problems with the people in the North Slave because that is not the way you run sports, you know. North Slave were the first ones to go to the Aboriginal Games down south. They brought three busloads. Then the next year the Indigenous Games came and Sport North got involved. So it was being done before Sport North. What I am saying is, yes, let us work together, but let us do it right. I think with the people interested, the MLAs, the volunteers, I think we can put it back on track again.

I think these are all very good comments from the honourable Member for North Slave. He talks about different sports. I think Sport North is made up of different representatives from different organizations. I think they have somebody from hockey on there, somebody from soccer, somebody from the volleyball association, baseball. They have a representative from curling at their AGM, and they select different Members to sit on their board. How they select for different teams for the Arctic Winter Games, they leave it up to the sport organization. If it is hockey, they leave it up to the hockey association. If it is volleyball, they leave it up to the volleyball organization. These suggestions are good.

As for the other concern in regard to indigenous games, again, it is something that happened in the past. I think last time it was about two or three years ago that they held it. I think this year or the next year they are having it. We learn from the mistakes of the past. I am sure that through the strategy we are developing and whatever results that are shared, these types of comments will really be helpful to add to the strategy we are working on together. At this point in time, I will take the honourable Member's comments and suggestions and different views that have to be taken and considered when we finalize our strategy. Thank you.

Thank you. Just one other thing, I would like to know if the Minister can get his department to look into how selections are done for coaches. The reason I am saying this is because there was one team that was going to be going to the summer games. They went through two camps and then the coaches were changed. All of sudden, two team Members were changed and two were dropped because the coaches wanted to have players from their own town on that team. Where before they got a coach, they had no representation at all. Things like this are happening, so maybe the Minister can look into some of these so they do not happen again. Maybe have some guidelines for employees and all the recreation people around the North so they can be fair. They are doing this to young people. It will scar them for life. They do not know why they are pulled. They have not made any mistakes or anything. They are pulled from a team because a coach wants to put some players from his own team when a new coach comes in.

We had that experience in Rae. I do not see how those two kids are ever going to get over it. Just so it does not happen again, maybe something can be done about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These are good comments. What the department could do is pass this information on to Sport North with respect to the different organizations they represent. Thank you.

Agreed.

Agreed.