Mr. Speaker, tonight I'll be tuning in to watch the Arctic Inspiration awards. Due to COVID, their event will be held virtually again.
Mr. Speaker, for those who do not know what the Arctic Inspiration Award is, if you look to their website it states the AIP is the largest annual prize in Canada by celebrating and providing SEED funding to northern teams with innovative projects. The AIP supports Northerners in bringing initiatives to life that bring about the changes they want to see in their communities.
The Arctic Inspiration Prize is by the North and for the North and is a community of people and groups including Indigenous organizations, academia, governments, nongovernmental organization, industry, philanthropy, media and arts, culture and organizations who share a common goal - to recognize northern innovation and excellence and encourage team work for the betterment of the life in Canada's north.
Every year, they have a million dollar prize awarded. Up to four awards for 500K and up to seven youth awards for $100,000. This year, there are two finalists for the $1 million prize - one from the Yukon and one from Nunavik. Good luck to them.
What I'm really excited is to watch the NWT projects. There are two youth finalists in the youth category, and they are both NWT projects:
- Treaty Talks; and
- Indigenous Youth River Guide Training.
In the AIP 500K category, there are six finalists with four from the NWT:
- Support Well-Being;
- Hope House;
- Fish Camp at Happy's Landing;
- Tuktoyaktuk Community Climate Resilience Project.
I'd like to say good luck to all the candidates and all the finalists.
Mr. Speaker, some of the laureate past winners that some may recognize and have made huge impacts in the Northwest Territories are Arctic Indigenous Wellness Project; Foxy, which is Fostering Open Expression among Youth; as well as Western Arctic Youth Collective, who's right now having a youth conference in Inuvik; Dene Heros Publication, just to name a few.
So make sure you tune in tonight and support our NWT finalists. Good luck to all, and I'm sure any project that wins will have a meaningful impact. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.