Mr. Speaker, I am in receipt of Return to Written Question 29-15(4) asked by Ms. Lee on February 15, 2006, to the Honourable Michael McLeod, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, regarding passport acquisitions for the 2006 Arctic Winter Games.

Ms. Lee had asked for information on the number of athletes, by sport, who did not meet the January 6, 2006, deadline for passports but would still be allowed to go to the Arctic Winter Games with other documentation.

Mr. Speaker, just to clarify, there was no January 6th deadline set by the Sport North Federation for passports. Sport North required athletes to provide proof that passport applications had been submitted before participating in the trials in early January.

Earlier this month, Sport North learned that some passport applications were being returned due to insufficient information, and that Passport Canada could not guarantee that applications returned could be processed in time.

For athletes and officials in this situation, Sport North advised that the U.S. Office of Homeland Security guidelines state that, while a passport is the document of choice, Canadians crossing the border should travel with a birth certificate and government-issued identification.

As of February 27, 2006, 85 percent of Team NWT does have a passport, and another eight percent have other acceptable identification. On that date, there were still 20 athletes and two mission staff who did not have a passport or other approved identification.

Of those athletes, six are scheduled to participate in Arctic sports, one in badminton, one in snowshoe biathlon, five in Dene games, three in hockey, two in soccer, and two in volleyball.