Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions for the Minister of sport and recreation from my Member’s statement. As I mentioned in my statement, we do not have a ski club or a ski shack in Fort McPherson.
I’d like to ask the Minister, are there funds available that the community can access to have that in place and also to have the proper equipment to maintain ski trails?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, we are very proud of our athletes’ achievements here in the Northwest Territories, and I think it’s been proven in the past that a number of our athletes are competing at an international level.
As far as the ski club goes, the community does have it within their means to provide that sort of infrastructure if they choose to. We can, as the department, work with the community to see how they can best use their infrastructure money that we give them to help with that. As far as equipment goes, there might be opportunities for some purchase of equipment with the money that they receive too. But we would be more than happy to work with the community to point out some of the options that they might have.
It seems like only the regional centres have ski clubs in this territory, so is this government willing to work with the smaller communities to make sure that they do have sufficient funds to have proper ski trails which can be used also for snowshoeing and even walking trails? We need proper equipment. For example, snowcats and groomers. I know those are a little costly, but these are needed. We have world-class sport athletes here in our territory and we need to ensure that they have the proper facilities in our communities.
As a government we do support the achievements of our high performance athletes. We try to assist them getting on to a national scale. Once they get on to a national scale, then there are other opportunities there for sponsorship. I take the Member’s point that in the communities they need to try and develop their athletes. We’ve seen a number of communities where they have strong snowshoeing programs because it’s a community pushed event.
If the community of Fort McPherson would want to do something on a ski trail and that, again, they have it within their means and our government will work with them to identify some of the options that they might have at their disposal. The regional centres do have ski clubs because members of the communities get together and they push for a ski club and try to find any assistance they can. But we will be more than happy to work with the community to help them with some of the options that they may have and what they may have at their disposal as far as spending goes.
Sometimes communities don’t have that as their priority. For example, the ski trails, as I mentioned. Can an organization within the community… Right now we have volunteers that provide these trails for our athletes with homemade groomers, yet we have world-class athletes. We need to ensure they have the proper equipment.
Will the Minister work with one of the organizations in the community to ensure that we have proper equipment?
Yes, we will work with the community and help them identify some of their options. If there’s a group there that’s interested, we will work with them to help them identify some of their options.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Nadli.
