Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I would like to give encouragement and support to the young athletes in our small communities. Last weekend girls under 15 from Deline won the basketball championship in the Northwest Territories, and previous to that they won first place in Grande Prairie.

In the North we have some really great athletes, even in the large centres such as Yellowknife and

Hay River and in our small communities of Deline, Norman Wells and Colville Lake. However, I want to say how much we appreciate the young kids coming out in whatever type of conditions to do their best for the North and for their community. Even with Colville Lake, no school gym, but they come out and they come into Norman Wells or Tulita.

The young kids from Colville Lake marvel at the school gym in those small communities as much as the young kids coming from Deline come to Yellowknife and look at the facilities they have here and they marvel at that. Yet they try hard. A big thanks goes out to the teachers who put out the extra hours for activities to make it happen for their young students. That’s what we want to support.

I think the parents need to be congratulated for raising money to take kids outside our communities. It takes thousands and thousands of dollars to bring kids from the Sahtu to Yellowknife for soccer, basketball or volleyball. We have to say thank you to the parents and encourage them to continue on with this and to look at ways that we can continue to support our young students going to school and playing the sports so that one day they may be recognized. We have students now in the Canada Winter Games and slowly up to the level of the Olympics and professionals. We have done it and I’d like to continue to support the families and the schools in the small communities and make sure that our students get the best type of training ever. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.