Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been asked for the past two years about connecting the residents of Fort Liard with Fort Nelson Hospital. The last Minister’s tour, as I was told by a number of the residents, this has been an issue for the past 25 years. You heard me correctly, Mr. Speaker, 25 years. Today, Mr. Speaker, I am going to share with you words from some elders who would like to see this issue resolved once and for all.

Mr. Speaker, most of the people of Fort Liard prefer to go to Fort Nelson for medical appointments and access to hospital services. It is a twoandahalfhour...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to the orders of the day, point number five, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister talked about $8.3 million into the recreation fund, $4.7 from Western Lotteries and $3.6 from the other areas. Can the Minister advise: does the department consider programs such as Youth Corps, Youth Contribution, and Youth Centre as programs for recreation funding?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess $4.7 million is on taxpayers who actually play lottery, so I appreciate that's where the money is coming from. So can the Minister actually give us a breakdown of the $3.6 million, where this money is actually spent and allocated? Is it in salaries? Is it programs? Or what variety of programs is this money accounted for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Uh, oh. We'll work on it.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank you for the clarification on that. This is going to be a little bit challenging, but I guess we'll go into what's in the budget and -- the budget is before the House, too. Oh, well, here we go: what is the intention in the budget with the bill in adding this multi-sport games funding to the bill? Can you answer that question?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, I regret to inform you that Rita Cazon passed away on November 16, 2017.

In talking with her family, I was told in typical Rita fashion. Rita was born in Edmonton on August 6, 1954. What the unique thing was, was her family was visiting Canada from Germany. Four years later, the family moved back to Canada via New York on a big ship, as they would say. She was raised in Leduc, Alberta, until she was 17 years old. Then she moved to Yellowknife in 1972.

That year, while attending school in Yellowknife, Ernest Cazon saw this very beautiful lady and said...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I'd like to recognize my oldest son; not my favourite son, my oldest son. As he says all the time, it's my favourite son, but I have to correct that. I'd like to recognize my son, Gordon Thompson, in the Assembly today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess I am going to have to sit down with the Minister and get a clear understanding of where this money is, because I don't think the numbers are crunching together as they should. My last question: does the department consider Children and Youth Resiliency Program as a recreation program or something different?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, I was asking questions of the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I would like to follow up with some follow-up questions. In the 2017-2018 budget, can the Minister advise how much money the department has given to municipal governments for recreation and if the money differs from community to community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer as we navigate on some difficult grounds here. Can the Minister please tell us how much money the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs put into exploration of funding excluding salaries?