Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With our Arctic Winter Games less than a month away, athletes and coaches are excited about getting there to represent Team NWT. Unfortunately, today we will not be talking about this.

Mr. Speaker, during the territorial trials four athletes from the Nahendeh region did not get the chance to compete for a spot, due to no fault of their own. On January 19, 2018, I ran into one of these athletes here in Yellowknife and was informed that he would not be in the Arctic Winter Games. When I asked him about the reason, he said he could not get there due to weather.

I have witnessed him training for the past two years, and the other three. He made every possible attempt to try to attend. The chartered flight was supposed to leave Fort Simpson on Thursday, January 19th, but was unable to land due to fog in Fort Simpson. The trials were delayed due to this cancellation. The athletes were informed that the charter would be arranged for the following morning and that it would be the last chance to get out. Not wanting to be reliant on the weather, he and another athlete drove from Fort Simpson, arriving in Yellowknife at 2:00 a.m. Friday morning. They went to check in for the flight to Inuvik at 9:00 a.m. and were told that there was a delay due to weather. By 9:30, they were informed that the flight for Inuvik was cancelled.

Once this happened, the athlete contacted the organizers to see if there were options. They were willing to compete on all the required trial events by video and willing to go do back-to-back events.

After he was told they would not entertain this idea, the athlete appealed this decision. The athletes had to wait over three weeks to hear the appeal be denied. He was told weather cannot be appealed. I'm wondering why it took so long, and if this was already in their appeal process. The athlete was directed to appeal to the international committee, asking to see if Team NWT could add a fifth athlete to the roster. They denied the request because they would have to add in an additional spot to each contingent.

Mr. Speaker, this athlete started training for these games right after coming so close to breaking a world record. Then this happened. It's not fair. I have received a number of phone calls from across the NWT and face-to-face meetings saying the same thing: not fair, and why wasn't the government prepared for this type of thing?

The department needs to address this so it doesn't happen in the future. I'll have questions for the Minister later on today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.