Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue of passports was brought to the attention of the communities and the general public last spring. We had indications from the host society, from the International Committee and the United States government that there was a strong indication that it would be a requirement in order to go into Alaska to attend the Arctic Winter Games. We did put that message forward. We worked with Sport North. We did support their desire to have everybody put in their applications. The teams or people who were selected to attend the territorial trials, we wanted to have the comfort that they had their application submitted at that level. Everybody did have their applications brought forward. Now we are at a stage where there is some concern. There is a small number of people who have not received their passports yet and we are looking at what we can do for plan B. We are looking at using a general identification card or birth certificates that were required to apply for the passport.

We did not want to be in the situation, Mr. Speaker, where we had a large number of athletes travelling to Alaska and not be able to get across the border. We did not want to be in a position where we had to pay for people to come back. We wanted to have the comfort going forward that everybody had the identification and had the necessary documents, and that's why the passports were a requirement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.