Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to take time to extend a warm northern welcome to a company that has opened its doors to a new office in Hay River. This company is Conoco Phillips and they hosted their grand opening and open house just over a month ago in Hay River.
Instead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony, our mayor, Duncan McNeill had the opportunity to demonstrate yet another unknown talent with a pipe cutter. So it was a pipe cutting ceremony.
The Hay River office is coordinated by Mr. Ross Papirnick who is the operations supervisor of Frontier. Mr. Papirnick and his wife Alphonsine are returning Northerners. Alphonsine originally hails from Fort Providence. The Papirnicks have returned to the Northwest Territories from Alberta and are pleased to be back home.
Mr. Papirnick will be working towards building relationships with First Nations and aboriginal people, local businesses and community groups in the Hay River area. The Hay River office will serve as a regional base for existing operations as well as new venture exploration that is taking place in northwestern Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and now in the southern part of the Northwest Territories. The office will complement Imperial Oil's offices in Inuvik, Norman Wells and Fort Simpson.
Mr. Speaker, I welcome Ross and Alphonsine Papirnick and Conoco Phillips to Hay River and I look forward to working together with them in building a strong economy and future for Hay River and for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause