Mr. Speaker, I can commit to the Member that we can have some discussions, interdepartmental and myself, and the Ministers of ECE and Health and Social Services to see if there are some options there that we can possibly look at. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I meant delivery to those communities that are accessible by winter road. I thought I would clarify that.

Mr. Speaker, recognizing the importance of housing to seniors and some of the conditions of some of the houses, the Housing Corp has taken some programs on to assist seniors with their housing. This is just another step in the whole process. I think it’s a positive step and I think it’s something that the seniors will welcome, you know, with the preventative maintenance where once they’re on the list, they continue to get the program every year. So we recognize the importance...

Mr. Speaker, the staff are planning on targeting seniors and if that means meeting with them, having one-on-ones with them in their home with translation provided, then that’s the direction that they’re going to take from now on. I would like to make it quite clear that this initiative is targeted at seniors and the ones who are not able to get around as well as they’d like to. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to rise today to recognize the nearly 400 athletes, coaches, cultural performers and staff who represented the Northwest Territories at the 2010 Arctic Winter Games.

It was my pleasure to attend the games this year along with a number of my colleagues who were there to cheer for Team NWT. I wish to thank those Members for supporting our youth and volunteers.

Mr. Speaker, although there were many highlights during the games, and all of our teams and competitors did very well, a few events really stand out.

The NWT Speed Skating Team dominated the field because of their...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is absolutely correct; it’s the time of year that you’re building that makes a big difference in the quality of the product and the prices that you get. That’s why we’d like to come forward in the fall time with our infrastructure budget, have that approved by this Assembly in the fall, then we could start putting out tenders for contracts so the material can be delivered early and the work can begin as soon as the weather warms up. As it stands right now, sometimes we have construction starting in July/August, when the material finally arrives. So we’re hoping to...

Mr. Speaker, there are also some communities that have some trail programs and there are a lot of ski trails from the old TEST Program that they’re starting to groom again. But for the communities that have put together trail programs, I’d commit to the Member that I’ll follow up on some of his requests and get some information as to how they went about doing it and pass that on to the Member. I’ll also have a discussion with any other departments. We look for any opportunity we can to improve the infrastructure in the communities. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’d have to follow up on that. To my knowledge, I don’t know if the program exists anymore, but I will follow up and get that information and pass it on to the Member. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, there is the money that we do pass on to the communities through the gas tax and the community infrastructure money that they’d be able to use for developing trails, if that was one of their priorities. I think we’re starting to see the results of a lot of the money that has been expended towards recreational facilities towards the development of our athletes, and I think the fact that we had 27 communities represented in the Arctic Winter Games goes a long way in showing that the money is being invested and is being used wisely by the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are very proud of the fact that during these past Arctic Winter Games, 27 of the 33 communities across the Northwest Territories were represented, and it’s our goal to get the other five communities in so when we go to Whitehorse in 2012 that we will have all 33 communities represented.

We have started the After School Program to try and encourage kids to get into the sport. Some of the money was able to be used for purchasing of equipment. As well, there was the federal money that we had allocated to some of the communities, the recreation infrastructure funding that...

I’d be willing to sit down with the Member as soon as we’re done today and that way he can have some comfort in knowing that the overall funding has increased. I can explain the rationale of the formula funding. I would be pleased to sit down with the Member and discuss that.