Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise today to pay tribute to my friend, mentor, and collaborator, Lyda Fuller. Ms. Fuller is retiring at the end of this month, after a 35-year career with the YWCA, 23 of those years in Yellowknife. Ms. Fuller is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. After she finished her master's degree at Johns Hopkins University, she worked with vulnerable populations there. On a camping trip to Ontario with a friend, she met her future husband, Ron, and eventually married him and moved to the YWCA in St. Thomas to work as director of community development. While there, she spearheaded program and community development initiatives that led to improved services for women in various Elgin County communities.

Madam Speaker, in 1991, Ms. Fuller and her husband moved to Regina, where she became the executive director of the YWCA there. She provided leadership to the agency through a difficult period, after large losses threatened its viability. During her six years there, she added significantly to the agency's assets and extended its community involvement.

Ms. Fuller and her husband arrived in Yellowknife in 1997, at a time of significant change for the YWCA. The agency was moving out of Northern United Place into Rockhill, with both a change of focus and expanded service options, including the Alison McAteer House family violence shelter and after-school program, which is the largest licensed childcare offering in the NWT and a transitional housing program for families.

Madam Speaker, these have been eventful years for Ms. Fuller and the YWCA, from the high of opening Lynn's Place, which offers second-stage housing to women who have experienced violence, to the low of seeing the Rockhill Apartments burn down two years ago. The agency has not only survived but thrived under Ms. Fuller's leadership, for which she was awarded an Order of the NWT last year. Hawa Dumbuya-Sesay is now taking over as executive director, and I wish her every success.

Most of all, Ms. Fuller has been a champion for women who have experienced intimate-partner violence. She has expanded and improved the range of supports for women throughout the territory and has collaborated on important research on this issue. Madam Speaker, I wish Ms. Fuller a long and happy retirement, with her keen interest in the night sky and fossils. I would like to thank her for her service to the North. Thank you.