Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it may appear that both Sri Lanka, a tropical agricultural island in the Indian Ocean near India, and Uruguay in South America are furthest from our minds as we sit here today. However, for two of my constituents, these countries are not too distant at all. I would like to recognize two young men, because for Derek Erasmus and Felix Isiah of Fort Simpson, the six months they spent abroad as exchange participants in the Canada World Youth program has had a great effect in their lives.

For Derek Erasmus, his months in Sri Lanka was a very different experience for him and one that he probably thought he would never encounter. As a Northerner and Canadian, we can only appreciate what democracy means for us. Derek was exposed to men carrying assault type rifles and people he could not communicate with. He was in a totally different way of life on the other side of the world where the daily lives involve militant rebels, soldiers and armoured vehicles. All through this, Derek spent time with a host family, where he spent days working with the family, and he spent his time teaching English in a school run by the government.

As for Felix Isiah, he spent time in the agricultural exchange program in Uruguay in South America, where he learned some Spanish and worked on a farm where he learned to work with very basic machinery and tools.

Both these young men have come back to Fort Simpson after this experience and both have learned to accept these different cultures in different countries, and a different way of life. They view the world differently now from their experience. I would like to welcome them home to Fort Simpson and to Canada. I am sure that this program is a very good program. It is a non-government organization that was established in 1971, and the young people who apply to this...