Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in a little while, the construction of a new school is going to be starting up in Inuvik. On the proposed site where this new school is going to be built, there is a ball field, Mr. Speaker. That is what I would like to speak to today.
The Slow-pitch Association put a lot of money into this new ball field. My understanding is they raised close to $150,000 and put it into this field. That is not including the in-kind donations they had for equipment and manpower. They have been told that, when they start building the school, they will build them a new field. Their problem is, Mr. Speaker, that they don't want to have another situation that happened over in Aklavik when they were building a health centre. They put it on the ball field and they said we will build you a new field. Well, when it came time to build a new field, Health didn't come up with the money. That was strike one. ECE didn't come up with the money. That was strike two. MACA finally stepped up to the plate and now I understand they have a base for a field. This has been six years in the making. Part of the problem was they didn't have a signed agreement in place. So when it came time to dish out the money, the players may have changed in the meantime and nobody had a record of any agreement that might have been made. This is the concern that the Slow-pitch Association has. The Department of Public Works and Services is going to have to work with these stakeholders in regards to a new school and make sure that they are all taken care of, the town is consulted on anything that is going on with the new school.
Mr. Speaker, in the overall picture of a project of this size, a ball field may seem like small change, but important enough, Mr. Speaker, for the people that built this field to have me speak about it. If it is that important an issue to them, Mr. Speaker, I find it is important enough for me to stand up here and speak to the issue and try and have some kind of a signed agreement in place so we don't have another situation that happened in Aklavik. That cost them six years of time on the field, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
---Applause