Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to acknowledge a former...(inaudible)...Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to acknowledge a former resident of Fort Providence who now lives in Hay River. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to recognize Mr. Richard Lafferty, who is retiring this year.

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Mr. Speaker, Mr. Lafferty spent 43 years of continuous service maintaining our NWT highways and it's not often that we, in this House, get a chance to acknowledge someone with that type of dedication and commitment and I'm glad to be able to do that today.

Mr. Speaker, in 1963, at the age of 18 years old, Mr. Lafferty started working for the federal government as a heavy equipment operator in Fort Providence. In 1975, Richard was promoted to the position of highway maintenance supervisor. In 1978, the position was transferred from the federal government to the territorial government, and after 43 years of government service with many job titles and changes in governments and departments, and many challenges and lots of progress and completions in highway projects in the transportation field, Richard has decided to retire from his position as the regional manager of the highways operations in the South Slave. I would like to share with you Richard's motto, and it goes like this: "Challenge keeps a man on his toes and life interesting." Certainly Richard has made these challenges very interesting and met them with great enthusiasm.

If someone can truly be recognized as a man that is content and dedicated with his chosen field of work, then Richard, in this position, is truly a role model for our people in the North and in our communities.

So I wanted to say to Richard, on behalf of the people in the Deh Cho and I'm sure all the Members of this House and the Government of the Northwest Territories, I commend you on your 43 years of service with the government. Mr. Speaker, I grew up next door to Richard and spent many nights listening to Richard and my brother John and Danny Bouvier learning how to play fiddle and guitar, and today Richard is well known for his accomplishments as a fiddler. Fiddling is something else that Richard has done for many years and I'd like to recognize him for that also. I'm sure he'll spend a lot of his time now playing fiddle, spending time with his grandkids, and enjoying retirement life.

Richard plans to retire this year in April, April 9th, 2007...