Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This weekend, starting Saturday night, 10:00 o'clock, I got a call: winds are hitting at 108 kilometres in my home community of Tuktoyaktuk, and we had a blow of the same weather up in Sachs Harbour. I put a note yesterday, I was so happy that the power was back on in my home community of Tuktoyaktuk and in Sachs Harbour, too; it was restored yesterday. Even waiting for the weather to improve and the delays that we had, we all pulled together through as a community, and a big thank you to my mayor, Erwin Elias. A special thank you to our Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Thompson; staff Richard Cockney who drove out to the plant from the community at 100-kilometre winds with a snowmobile to try to get the plant up and running for the community. Thank you, Richard, and Mason, and the line crew, when they did arrive into the community. I'd also like to thank Meeka Steen for text messages.
I'd like to thank the DEA chair, Darlene Gruben, who I called at 1:30 in the morning to see if we could get the school opened up, which they gladly did, and they were starting to help people at the Mangilaluk School starting at 8:00 in the morning. Thank you, Ephraim Warren, the principal; Audrey Walker, for cooking for the people. The EGT workers who opened up the runway; Gus Gruben, Kenny Lucas, and Doug Saunders, for getting the runway open, and thank Fraser Pingo at Alkak Air for the work that you did yesterday.
I'd also like to thank Mr. Marius Driscoll of Tuktoyaktuk Stanton; the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk staff; Davey Krengnektak, Wayne Cockney, and Bruce Noksana. I'd like to thank, for free transportation, Tuk Taxi, Eileen Jacobson, who provided rides to the community, and also Steen Services, Joanne Edwards-Steen, who gave free rides, as well, to and from the shelter. They needed, the community, the rides to get them to the emergency shelters. Also, a thank you to Noe Cockney, Mr. Speaker, our elders Roy Cockney, David Noksana, and the family members who helped in any way. Thank you for all they've done for our community, working together in a crisis that needed the school, anyone involved.
Together, they did this outstanding job. They cooked for over 200 people, Mr. Speaker, and I really want to thank them for keeping them fed and warm. They enjoyed each other's company, because I saw it on Facebook live. I'm really proud of all of them, the community pulling together for the safety of our people, especially with the time that is coming in front of us. I also want to thank my wife because, at 10:00 at night, I never slept until 6:00 Sunday, so we were up for 20-plus hours. I thank the Minister again for all the hard work he's done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.