Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to acknowledge the efforts of

Mr. Terry Rideout from Hay River in being instrumental in this motion coming forward to the House and for all the work that he has done in bringing attention to this very important matter.

Mr. Speaker, as legislators, we are obligated to do everything we can in our power to protect children, youth and vulnerable persons. Absolutely, this motion will not cover all aspects of where people may be at risk. This will catch people who have come in contact with the law already. Certainly, there is a lot of abuse taking place in our communities right now by persons where it is not reported and where these people have not been brought to justice. So this is one effort. This is one piece in an effort that we need to make to ensure that our children are safe and that they are protected.

Some folks may say that this type of a criminal records check for employees and volunteers, that this somehow might create some kind of offence that might discourage people from volunteering in our communities. But, Mr. Speaker, I submit that if you weigh the inconvenience for the potential offence of this against the possibility of even one instance of a child being hurt by a sexual predator, I would say that we should proceed with this and not worry about any of those kinds of negative implications or backlash to this. People need to understand that our intentions are good and are motivated by good and valid reasons when we speak in support of this motion.

We need to make criminal records checks a normal course of action so that when people are entering into positions where they are employed or they are volunteers, this becomes a well accepted, normal course of action that they would be called upon to agree to a criminal records check.

With that, Mr. Speaker, again, I would like to thank Mr. Rideout and I would say all these voting in favour of the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.