Thank you, Mr. Chair. The NWT has a lot of natural athletes. I have heard that a number of times. We just don’t have the benefits of some of our larger jurisdictions’ level of competition.

The Member makes a good point and there may be some merit to that. One of our sporting partners is

actually looking at something along those lines, the centre of excellence Program, or we would have a number of our higher performing athletes in one central place. There is some merit to that. We’ve asked for a business case as to how to move this forward. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to happen overnight.

We have to be prepared for 2023 when the Canada Winter Games is going to come to the Northwest Territories. There is some merit to that. Through the number of programs that we offer, we give young people an opportunity to be active. Some take us up on it and they start to progress through the athletic stream, then there are some commitments that they have to make on their behalf. Some of that commitment may require moving away from home for a while to train with others in their field. So there is a huge commitment. We will do what we can, as a department and as a government, to put the tools in place. We will commit to doing our part.

We need to see our young people, too, doing their part. It’s not only becoming elite athletes, it’s all about becoming active. There is a progression. We have seen what committed athletes who are committed to their training can do on the national scene and the international scene. We will do what we can to put tools in place. At the same time, we need that commitment from our young people to take us up on some of the options that we put forward for them. There is some merit to that. Again, come 2023 we want to make sure that the NWT is competitive. The past number of Canada Games that I’ve attended, I see us becoming more and more competitive. That’s just based on the natural ability of a lot of our athletes. If we get them the training of the competition, I think that will start making more noise. Thank you, Mr. Chair.