Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee for allowing me to sit in. I was not an alternate nor was I a member of the committee, but they allowed me to sit in and provide my viewpoints on this. First and foremost, I have to say that this bill with the amendments is appropriate. I think the Minister has been willing to work with the committee and made positive steps.

I guess I have to make it very clear. These are lotteries for the recreation and sports community, which has a primary focus on youth. That has to be really very clear on that. I totally support that arts needs to be funded more appropriately, but not through this fund. I could not, in good conscience, support that. That has to be focused there.

I also have a challenge with the one amendment. I appreciate that we removed the multi-sport games out of the thing there, but the discretion is still with the Minister. However, I would hope the Minister would never, ever use that discretion. I would hope that we would be able to find the funds within the department or within appropriation. I think I made it very clear in my comments, in my direction there. It needs to be focused on that area there. We need to look at the lotteries for the development in grassroots for people, youth.

As for the definition of "recreation," I really have a hard time going back and having people go out there and look for a new definition. This here is the national definition of "recreation" that was developed over two years of people working on it. It is recognized across Canada, the arts, the music, the recreation and sports world. Fortunately, I was part of the process. I saw it. I was there. Again, it took two years to come up with the definition. The government has supported that. The organizations have supported that. I really don't know if, going out for consultation on the new definition, again, we are going to change something that is already recognized nationally. That there is a concern for me, but I have had a conversation with the Minister on that there.

My colleague talked about the arts world here. I totally agree. We need to put more money into this. The arts world needs to do it. I don't want to have the sport and recreation world competing against the arts world, because that's not what it is. It's about the well-being of our residents. We need to put and find money for that. If we don't, then we're going to have that. If we thought we saw we a lot of people in the arts community into the picture, I can guarantee you if we changed our system of the Lottery Act and allowed it to open, we'd see this whole building filled with the people in the sport and recreation world.

I mean we would see thousands of people coming protesting outside there. I mean we have to be very realistic in the direction. I support the need for putting more money into the arts. I appreciate the Minister for ITI and the Minister of ECE talking about working together and developing and reviewing this. I think we need to put more money in and I thank the Minister for making that first step.

Back to the bill. I support the bill as it is presented, even though there are some things in here I don't agree with. In the overall picture for the well-being of the residents of the Northwest Territories, I have to support this. Again, I'd like to thank the Minister and department and the committee and their staff for doing a good job with this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.