Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about the need to support our smaller communities with sport and recreation youth programs.
When we were younger, many of us were able to participate in a wide range of winter and summer sport and recreation activities here in the Northwest Territories. Among them were a very successful skiing program in Inuvik, a floating swimming pool that made stops up and down the Mackenzie River, above-ground swimming pools, and vibrant outdoor rinks in many of our smaller communities: all of this in the 1970s. What happened? How were we able to provide all those activities back then? Today, the youth in many of our small communities don’t have the same opportunities.
Mr. Speaker, part of the reason for the success of these programs was that the communities were able to hire qualified staff: staff who dedicated themselves to their jobs, who had the necessary skills to develop and, more importantly, the natural aptitude to deliver a variety of summer and winter sport and recreational activities for the whole community.
Today, smaller communities struggle to attract, hire and retain qualified recreation and youth staff. There is no question, Mr. Speaker, that small communities need help from this government to be able to properly fill these positions. I firmly believe that hiring qualified recreation professional staff and hiring local recreation assistants is the first step towards addressing many of the sport and recreation and youth problems.
Mr. Speaker, I spoke many times on many issues and concerns affecting the youth in Tu Nedhe and the need for swimming pools, youth centres, more dollars in O&M for existing facilities and much, much more. In addition to all of this, these workers can deliver programs where the youth have fun, enjoy themselves and gain positive experiences in a safe environment.
We need to support these communities. If that means getting creative, so be it. Providing communities with adequate assistance and support to hire qualified staff today can result in cost savings in the long run. However, Mr. Speaker, more importantly, the real benefit to this is that if we can assist communities with this issue, we’ll soon see them become more active, more vibrant and more healthy.
Thank you.
Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
