Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Jim Thomas was born at 2 Island, 32 miles below Fort Simpson, on February 25, 1924. He has lived all his life in the North, from Fort Chipewyan to Fort Providence to attend the residential school. In the 1940s he worked underground at Ptarmigan Mines until he was transferred to Con Mine. Later, in the 1950s, he also found work on the drilling rigs when oil companies were exploring for oil and gas. In the late 1950s, he was working on building the road to Kakisa.
In the 1960s Jim called Hay River his home. He worked in many different capacities, as a firefighter, a captain on an NTCL tug boat, to a corrections officer and a fisherman on Great Slave Lake, but the land would always have his heart, and that is where his true talent shone.
Jim's sense of humour for everything in life always brings a smile to people who know him.
In the 1990s Jim became very involved in the Dehcho Process. After the West Point First Nation got recognition of band status, he sat on council as an elder at the local level and as an elder advisor to the Dehcho leadership table. With all his wisdom, he shared what he learned as a child to the leaders then of the treaties and what they stood for.
I am happy to recognize Mr. Jimmy Thomas on his 90th birthday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause
