Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following up on remarks by my colleague, the Member for Hay River South, I also would like to raise concerns that I have had brought to my attention by constituents about the proposed creation of a new territorial recreation and sport board. The concerns that I want to bring forward are from the territorial sporting organizations, Mr. Speaker, who have been grappling with this issue for at least a year now and are still not supportive of the creation of a new board.

I took the opportunity to attend their annual general meeting on May 24th and listened to the concerns of the volunteer board and the 27 sport organizations that comprise it. During the session on the proposed territorial recreation and sport board, Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed that neither the deputy minister nor the Minister were there for what is a very controversial issue and one that they are not taking seriously. It was a clear message sent from the Sport North group, Mr. Speaker, that this is something that they need to pay more attention to.

The message from Municipal and Community Affairs was that the Minister has said it will proceed with the creation of this board. Implementation is the issue, not whether it is the right thing to do. Well, the Minister has said his officials are prepared to meet and continue to meet. They are clearly not getting or understanding the message from sport bodies.

The core of sport and what makes it work in the Canadian system and here in the Northwest Territories are the volunteers who make contributions well in excess of any funding that might ever come from government. It is ironic that Municipal and Community Affairs, who have the responsibility for volunteer development and recognition - and they are doing a good job with it - is the focus of such concern and criticism from these sporting volunteers.

Much is accomplished by them across the Northwest Territories, Mr. Speaker. We get exceptional value from the volunteers and from the Sport North group and what we need to do is recognize their concerns at this time. What the government needs to do, Mr. Speaker, is to define the expectations it has for sport and recreation for all our communities and then work with the partners to find out how it can be achieved. Certainly the first thing, Mr. Speaker, is to at least defer the creation of this new territorial sport board. Thank you.

---Applause