Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. During my Member’s statement, I talked about building capacity, so I'd like to ask the Minister, could you please explain to us the process for selecting mission staff regarding the Arctic Winter Games?
Masi, Member for Nahendeh. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have an agreement with Sport North that manages our games. They put a call out for advertisements in the paper for mission staff for the games that are coming up. Apparently, this year they had 80 applications, and they chose them. My understanding is they wanted to get a bit of a regional balance and that too, so that's the process that they use for the selection of mission staff.
Regarding regional balance, six communities out of the 33 have 11 spots. Could you please explain to me what the regional balance is, what they're talking about?
At this point, I'll remind the Members to direct your questions through the Speaker. Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
I would have to have a discussion with Sport North. If you look at the names that came forward and the communities that they were from, I mean the Member's correct, there were a number of communities that weren't included in this. A lot of the folks chosen were from some of the regional centres. I can have that discussion with them and see if there are ways that we can include a lot of the smaller communities. They look at, as I said before, they want a regional-type balance, a gender balance, and they try to get as many people that have been involved in sports before. But I take the Member's point and I will have that discussion.
Mr. Speaker, I apologize, and I’ll direct my questions to the Speaker. I thank the Minister for that response. Is there a rubric that they use to identify how they select their candidates for the mission staff?
I will follow up with Sport North and have a discussion with them as to the criteria that they use for the selection of their mission staff, and again, they are paying attention to the conversation that we're having in here today, so I'm sure that they will take steps to ensure that there's a greater regional balance and small community balance in the future.
Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
