Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse this past March and first of all I want to thank the City of Whitehorse and the organizing committee for excellent games. I want to congratulate Nunavut for their being awarded the Stu Hodgson Award for best sportsmanship.
I was very impressed with our athletes in Whitehorse both on and off the field. On the field they gave it their all. Off the field they were great ambassadors for the Northwest Territories and had many positive comments from a lot of the other families that were there.
We had some really good results. Our speed skating and our ski biathlon teams could have almost chartered their own plane back with all their medals.
Mr. Speaker, the reason I’m wearing this jersey today is the gold medal game was held between the NWT and the Yukon and I had a friendly wager going with my counterpart in the Yukon, Minister Taylor, and I’m fulfilling the terms of our wager now. We had a very strong cheering section in Whitehorse. Mr. Speaker was there, Commissioner Tuccaro, MLA Hawkins, plus many parents that made the trip there. The boys gave a really good effort, but at the end of the day they lost the game 2 to 1 and the gold medal went to the home team. I think we were just being gracious visitors.
I appreciate the indulgence of the Speaker and the Members of the Assembly for allowing me this opportunity to fulfill my obligation. I do have to return the jersey back to Yukon. I will return it along with an NWT jersey that they can plan on wearing after Fairbanks 2014.
