Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate the NWT Recreation and Parks Association on the sixth annual Walk to Tuk. A dozen of my colleagues here in the House reached Tuktoyaktuk yesterday joining hundreds of others who got there before us.
---Applause
It was close, Mr. Speaker.
---Laughter
The Recreation and Parks Association is a non-profit that works with communities across the NWT to promote healthy living through active recreation. It offers a variety of programs. The Walk to Tuk is the largest, longest, and most effective physical activity undertaken in the NWT each year. There were nearly 200 teams and 2,600 walkers from 22 NWT communities. Here are the results; they're truly staggering. Together we walked 456,117 kilometres for an equivalent of 107,000 hours of walking. The Walk to Tuk is 1,658 kilometres. Teams don't literally walk to Tuk of course, but rather walk to work, walk the dog, jog, ski, snowshoe, or walk on a track. Teams are up to 20 members and together they left the starting point in Fort Providence on January 4th. Each hour a member walks counts as four kilometres on the teams with 10 or more, which was the case for ourselves. There's lots of interest from team members about where they are and where other teams are in comparison.
The Members of the Legislative Assembly had a team for the first time. A group of 12 of us decided that we would keep up the walking we were doing while campaigning. The Poly Walkers started slowly, walking 350 kilometres within the first two weeks taking us south of Wrigley. Then, in the midpoint, we were at Tulita and then at Fort Good Hope, and then we had to pour it on and do 700 kilometres in the last two weeks. I want to give the team credit for coming through and especially Shane Thompson and Robert C. McLeod who pulled out all the stops walking over 20 hours each in the last two weeks. It can be challenging to be active in the North in January and February. The Walk to Tuk is a brilliant way to encourage people to stay active in these cold months. It awakens their competitiveness. I want to congratulate all the teams who participated in the program this year, and don't stop now. Turn around and head back during the warm and sunny days of spring. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
