Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department up to May 25th of this past month was proceeding with plans to put in place the board. As a matter of fact, the interim coordinating team was identified and did have a first meeting on May 14th with a future meeting planned for June. It was that particular team that would put together the plans as to where the board would go from that point on and at what pace we would establish this particular board. An audit was in coordination and we had cooperation up to then from Sport North and all the members we were aware of at that time, anyway, were in favour of putting forward the board, although there was some dissatisfaction expressed over the past year by some territorial sports organizations with the formation of the board. The majority of the sports organizations and recreational groups in the territory did support the formation of the board and as far as we know still support the formation of the board. But as Members know, Mr. Speaker, on May 25th, Sport North came out with a motion indicating that they were not satisfied with the establishment of the board and they would like more information before making a decision as to whether to continue to support the formation of this territorial sports board. The department has not received anything official from that particular meeting in regards to whether or not we would ask to meet with the Sport North officials. My department's officials are available to meet with Sport North officials, but we are waiting for them to contact us officially. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it does seem that there is quite a bit of unhappiness about the establishment of this new board within the Sport North organization and with some of the territorial sport organizations as well. One of their concerns is that this forms another level of administration which is going to eat up dollars that could go directly to supporting young people in recreation and sport activities. Could the Minister just kind of briefly outline for me what was the impetus behind the establishment of this board? It is quite a significant overhaul of how money is distributed and how sport and recreation is overseen. It is quite a change and I am just wondering, what was the driving force or the impetus for this change? Where did it come from? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Minister Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just a little bit of background on that. The driving force, the reason there is to form a territorial sports board was as a result of meetings that were held between all the sports organizations and recreation organizations in the territory over the last couple of years. It was as a result of some dissatisfaction expressed by community leaders, some Legislative Assembly Members, in particular from small communities as to the ability for people in the small communities to take advantage of the sports activities on a larger scale. In other words, smaller communities felt that they did not have the same opportunities as larger centres to take part in either territorial sports activities or national or international activities. Therefore, they were suggesting that there should be a different make-up of the Sport North board. They figured it was a little bit too heavy in favour of the larger centres. Those were some of the concerns expressed by local community leaders as well as Legislative Assembly Members. Now, as a result of this, the previous Minister set up this information gathering effort to see whether or not there were grounds to actually proceed with some form of new sport and recreation board. It was well recognized that in order to do this you would have to take some of the authority away from the Sport North, because they have the authority right now to distribute lottery funding, subject, of course, to the Minister's approval. It has been basically run this way for the last 25 years or so. Sport North has been basically the one that has been distributing the funding, based on guidelines.

This type of situation that is raising some concerns with Sport North members as to whether or not...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Minister. That answers the question. I just want to remind the House that a long, long answer is probably best to send the whole policy over to the other side. Short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the point that the Minister raised on the consultation that took place in the meetings over the past two years and also the information gathering, it's interesting because those are two of the points raised in a motion that was passed by Sport North on May 25th. They felt there was not enough consultation and that in fact information that would have articulated what people's concerns are would have been and could have been better addressed. So it seems like there's a miscommunication here. Is the Minister willing to take any initiative to contact them? I know part of their motion indicated that they would provide relevant data to MLAs, Minister and partners and the public in every forum possible. They obviously haven't found a forum yet to get this information to you. Would you take the initiative to have your people talk to their people and try to get this resolved? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Steen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my department has already indicated to Sport North officials that we're willing to meet with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen. That was final. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.