Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today a very important event is going to happen in Fort Simpson regarding the NWT Winter Games for all the students. Young people are going to be heading over there from the Northwest Territories communities.

Mr. Speaker, I have a list of representatives from the Sahtu region. There's going to be about 40 athletes with 10 chaperones. Mr. Speaker, the students who are going to be participating in these winter games in Fort Simpson look forward to it every year, and I think it's a really golden opportunity that the smaller communities down the Mackenzie Valley, Beaufort Sea, to have an opportunity to come together once a year and participate in the NWT Winter Games. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that these communities from my region certainly appreciate the effort done by MACA and by the communities to get them going into these sports and get them through the fund-raising events and the practices and training. Communities like Nahanni Butte that doesn't have any gym, but they are participating with people from Tsiigehtchic and Colville Lake that are going there. These young students that are going there may one day be Olympic hopefuls, as some of our Members talked about. Some of our own people here in the Northwest Territories are moving up on a higher level of athletic sporting performance in the world. So this gives hope to the young ones and to the small communities, that we are looking out for them, we do care for them. The good people in Fort Simpson and around that area are going to host over 300 people over the next couple of days and they're going to be putting out their time and energy and volunteering to put a good show on for these young people that come into Fort Simpson. I think these NWT Winter Games need more support, need more money, and need to really help these young students to say, yes, we believe in them and that maybe one day they could participate at a Canada Winter Games or even Olympic trials.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say congratulations to the wonderful people that put this together, and to thank the people in Fort Simpson for hosting the NWT Winter Games this year. Mahsi.

---Applause