Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Throughout our lives in whatever jobs that we do and how we interact with people as a Member or a private citizen or businessperson, we run into a lot of good people in the Northwest Territories. I was very surprised to hear of an elder in Colville Lake who went missing. I thought back in January when I saw him and spoke to him and he talked about his life on the land. He actually gave me some fish and some meat and he talked about living out on the land and being out there in Colville Lake. I was saddened to hear, when I phoned Colville Lake yesterday, that they still hadn’t found this elder and that the people were coming together and helping out with the search and being there for the family. Later on this morning I heard that they located Mr. Alexis Blancho, who was an elder and very independent man. I was saddened to hear of the passing of him.
I want to say that these elders that go on to the next world, when we go visit them and they talk to us, they usually give us very good advice; really good advice. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what the advice is about. Mr. Blancho said that we should be working together on issues. Talk about issues that are really hard in front of us. We need to work together and how to survive on the land and how to survive in the community. This guy, when I went to him, had hopes for his grandchildren, his children, and he knew the different lifestyles. He also knew the importance of working together and doing what we had to do.
I want to thank people from around the Sahtu and communities for giving support to Colville Lake at this time. I know they are really heavy hearted. They said when the phone calls come in, it lifts their spirits up. I want to thank people who made phone calls to Colville Lake and thank a lot of people for helping out.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
