You almost forgot me there. [English translation not provided]
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say thank you to Mr. Whitford for being an ambassador of the Northwest Territories. You know, you can’t really say no to an elder when an elder asks you to include him in a journey we have with our portfolios. When I first became Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, visiting the schools and gradation dates and so forth, when I first met Tony and we sat down, of course he told so many stories at that time too, but he asked me if I could include him in my journey and I couldn’t say no to an elder, so I said okay, Tony, I will certainly include you in all the journeys that I will be taking, and I did. He graciously accepted almost every trip that we’ve taken to the communities.
Mr. Speaker, some of the great examples is the welcoming. When Mr. Whitford goes into a community, you can feel the love in the community, the attraction and the respect, lots of respect in the community, whether it be the young, the community members, the elders and just conversing back and forth with an elder. I sit and watch because he’s my elder and I like to look up to my elders. So I watch and observe and I’ve learned a lot of things from Mr. Whitford. He goes into one of my communities and converses back and forth with a 90-year-old elder and I just watch in curiosity of do they know what they’re talking about? You know, they are conversing back and forth in Tlicho and English.
---Laughter
But they are, they’ve been conversing for almost an hour. Later, I usually go see Tony; what are you guys talking about? You know, great things we talk about, the previous history, where we’ve been, bush camps and whatnot. I asked the lady, the elderly lady, same thing. There was communication happening. That’s how magical his touch was. He just opened doors to the whole Northwest Territories. He was a great ambassador. He still is. He still will be for the Northwest Territories. I mentioned in my Tlicho language whenever you are somebody special, somebody big, such as the Commissioner, yes, your term is up, but at the same time when you go into communities people will still remember you as Commissioner or grand chief or Premier. It’s always been the case in our traditional history of the Dene people.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to close off by saying it has been a great pleasure, Tony, working with you and we will continue to work with you in a different format. But at the same time, as human beings, we continue to love each other, work with each other. I wish you all the luck on the next journey that you will walk on. So, mahsi, Mr. Speaker.