Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Starting this evening in Inuvik they’re having their annual IRC native hockey tournament. This is a tournament that started some 20 years ago and with a small group of teams. It has grown into a fairly big tournament today.
On Friday night they will be honouring one of the founding fathers of the IRC Cup, who unfortunately passed away on Boxing Day. They will be dedicating the arena to Roy Ipana, who was a huge supporter of hockey in Inuvik. He was one of those guys who was just larger than life and you just expected to be around forever. You don’t appreciate how much these people bring into the communities until you no longer have them around. I want to commend the Town of Inuvik for acting very quickly in renaming the arena after a well-deserving individual.
I’d like to wish all the folks up in Inuvik and Mackenzie Delta the best of luck this weekend. Be very safe when you travel and honour Roy’s memory by playing hard and playing fair.
