Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that my lands people are working with the town at this time already to explain to them how to use this equipment and assist them in using the equipment so that the blocks of Commissioner's land that the town is requiring and requesting will be identified in legal form.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the land that the town wanted transferred in the general plan was identified. However, it is not specific. It is not identified in the legal form so that we could take that to the aboriginal groups and to Cabinet. It has to be identified in legal form, not just in a general plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the present time, Mr. Speaker, the town needs to identify the parcels of Commissioner's land that it wants transferred, and then MACA has developed as well an electronic mapping tool to assist the town to identify these parcels. Afterwards, the town will have to put in a formal application to MACA and request the transfer of this land. Because it's fee simple that they're asking for, they would then have to take the request to the aboriginal groups and see whether or not they agree with this. Assuming everything goes forward as planned and there is no objection from the aboriginal groups, the application for transfer of this land and fee simple title will be taken to Cabinet for their approval to waive the policy. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, October 5 to 11, 2003, is National Fire Prevention Week, so this is a fitting time to announce the recipients of this year's Northwest Territories Fire Service Merit Awards program.

In 2002, I established the Fire Service Merit Awards, a new program to recognize the contribution of individual firefighters and fire departments in the Northwest Territories.

A special inaugural ceremony was held to announce the 2002 winners during Fire Prevention Week. Members of the Legislative Assembly were invited to attend this ceremony at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre to help recognize these special contributors to the fire service.

In this second year of the program, the department once again received nominations to recognize the special contribution of individual firefighters. Individual nominations are assessed by a panel of local and territorial fire service officials, against a set of established criteria. These nominations have now been assessed and I am pleased to announce the 2003 winners at this time.

The individual Fire Service Merit Award recipients for 2003 are:

• • Al Kuyten of the Norman Wells Fire Department
• • Robert Ansdell of the Tsiigehtchic Fire Department

Mr. Ansdell has also been chosen as the recipient of the 2003 Territorial Fire Service Merit Award.

The department also received nominations for the Community Fire Service Merit Award. This award is presented to recognize the efforts of the fire department and the entire community in improving the local fire protection system.

The assessment process to determine the community merit award winner has now been completed and I am pleased to announce that the 2003 Community Fire Service Merit Award goes to the City of Yellowknife Fire Division.

Mr. Speaker, ceremonies to recognize the winners will be held in their home communities in the near future. I would ask all Members of the Legislative Assembly to please join me in congratulating the two recipients of the individual awards and the City of Yellowknife Fire Division. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to inform Members of this Assembly about the Northwest Territories' search and rescue prevention strategy.

The strategy was developed by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs through a two-year consultation process involving community leaders, territorial search and rescue authorities and search and rescue organizations in each of the Northwest Territories' five regions.

This work was supported by the federal government through the new initiatives fund, a national cost-sharing program for search and rescue.

The Northwest Territories search and rescue prevention strategy is based upon a framework developed at the national level. This framework came about because the various federal agencies with responsibilities in the area of search and rescue saw the need to address prevention. They understood that, while it is important to develop a capacity to respond to search and rescue incidents, it is also important to try and prevent such situations from happening.

The Northwest Territories search and rescue prevention strategy is the most appropriate means of reducing the North's high number of reports of missing or stranded persons not only because of the focus on prevention, but also because it is the result of extensive community consultations. The strategy includes a consolidation of approximately 150 recommendations from these consultations.

This consultation process ensured that the final strategy is a made-in-the-North plan based upon the realities of northern conditions. It also ensured that the strategy contains realistic, useful recommendations for reducing the number and severity of search and rescue incidents in the Northwest Territories.

Northwest Territories search and rescue authorities will need to work with communities and all northern stakeholders to effectively implement the recommendations from this strategy. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs looks forward to working with all interested parties to make this happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled the Northwest Territories Sports, Recreation and Physical Activity System. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I responded to another Member in the House here, we're very early in the stage of consultation with the municipalities in how they would like to see this funding applied. At this point, there is indication that the water and sewage programs will be high priority, however, there are also indications that there would be some priority placed on dust control in smaller communities. We are also supporting the request from the Federation of Municipalities to have this funding applied to between a three- and five-year program rather than a 10-year program to allow for more funding at an earlier stage and to allow a lot of the municipal projects to be completed at an earlier stage. At this point in time, we haven't closed off discussions with anyone and I'd be happy to open discussions with memberships, in particular probably through the business planning process as well, to have some input from the Members as well. If possible, I don't know if we have the time or not, but it would have been nice to have the time to sit down with the AOC and see whether we can have some thought put forward on this from them before the new government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Honourable Andy Mitchell, who is the Secretary of State for our rural infrastructure and he indicated that it's expected that the $15 million will, in fact, be met with $15 million from either one-third, one-third, one-third with the federal government, the municipalities and the territorial government or on a 50/50 basis for non-tax-based communities with the territorial government. So, he's expecting that overall the infrastructure funding will be at least $30 million. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hope that the documents I'm going to table today will help the Members and general public get some idea how and who will be involved in the consultation process and who will be in charge of the consultation process. Right now, the plan is that the council itself will be involved and will be directing most of the consultation process. The interim team will actually be doing all this until the council is in place. So, Municipal and Community Affairs is part of the support for the interim team and we'll be taking part in the consultation process and getting the information out to the membership, the partners, the sports groups, as required. Thank you.