Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have noticed a disturbing trend that is occurring in the Territories. We have doctors, nurses, teachers and sports organizations threatening to walk away if they do not get their way. Mr. Speaker, people have to start looking at why they have chosen the positions that they have and who they are here for. When just maintaining existing services is a priority for this government, threatened walkouts only create fear and division. I think that, where the government is involved, the public has to realize there is a large debt and that finding more and more and more money is not always possible, especially when cutbacks are happening.

Sometimes in this House there is a lot of division. Debates rage, but no solutions are found and these issues turn into emotional battlefields with no winners. Mr. Speaker, instead of taking a position and making a stand, maybe all Members of the Legislative Assembly and these groups need to meet and reach a common goal. I know this can be effective. As a Member who helped to establish the Special Joint Committee on Non-Tax-Based Community Affairs, we formed this committee to identify the needs of the smaller communities. I was pleased that on Monday, June 9th, everyone in the House agreed to work on the motions that we introduced. Mr. Speaker, this was a productive use of our time with concrete results.

With regard to the creation of a new sports and recreation board, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs stated last Thursday that there were three reasons for the suggested establishment of a new board: one, to provide small communities more opportunities to participate in the sports and recreation system; two, to ensure representation by small communities in the decision-making process; three, to establish a mechanism to allocate lottery resources fairly among communities and regions.

Mr. Speaker, whether or not these objectives can be met by forming a new sports and recreation board is creating a lot of division. It might be more effective if all the players sat down and worked together toward common solutions. Mr. Speaker, I think the whole territory loses when we fail to work together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause