Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to approach it by talking about the Northwest Territories sports and recreation partners. The meeting took place on May 10 to 11th in Hay River.
There have been a number of meetings where these partnerships have come together. At this conference, a lot of people from most of the communities representing sports and recreation. About 80 delegates attended this conference. I think only three Northwest Territories communities were not there. There was Minister Allen and MLAs Mr. Nitah, Mr. Braden, and Mr. Delorey were there. There was a discussion that took place, and there was a lot of ideas that flowed from that conference about sports and recreation development in the Northwest Territories. MLA Ms. Lee also submitted a paper for circulation at this conference.
We are currently looking at what we discussed there. A lot of ideas came out of it, and there were a number of workshops. Hopefully, some sort of strategy will evolve from that. I think there was a lot of enthusiasm by community recreation providers and personnel there. The talk in the workshop discussion was very lively. I think it covered the strategic area as to where we are going to go in terms of sports and recreation in the Northwest Territories. I would like to say we are in-between Arctic Winter Games. Hopefully, I would like to push this one, as a department, to come out with something by July. I will circulate whatever information comes out of it to the MLAs for comments prior to the department finalizing a plan of action on where to go.
On the strategic side, I would like to approach it from that point of view. We are working with sports and recreation people in the communities and the department to develop this plan of action.
As for the Arctic Winter Games itself, there is an Arctic Winter Games international committee. We have two representatives representing the Northwest Territories on that committee. Whenever this committee gets together, and whatever develops out of this plan and strategic approach, we will be giving direction to our representative to take it forward and see how we can pursue it at the committee meeting.
There is another conference here coming up in July, the 12th through the 14th. The federal Minister of Sports and Youth, Denny Kodare will be here, and representatives from the Northwest Territories, Yukon Ministers and sports delegates from Nunavut. The three territories will meet here to deal with the regional sports and recreation development. That is another forum in which we could be discussing these areas. There is a delegate list that has been compiled. The delegation will comprise representatives from communities and different sports organizations. There is a plan of action. Hopefully, it will eventually develop into a strategic approach to the whole area of sports and recreation, including the area of Arctic Winter Games by this fall. Thank you.