Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and recognize the hard work and efforts of the NWT Recreation and Parks Association. From January 7th to March 4th, residents of the Northwest Territories participated in the event, The Walk to Talk Challenge. With records this year, we had 102 teams participate, and out of the 102 teams that participated, 73 had actually made it to Tuk, and I understand there were other teams that did make it but didn’t have their times submitted on time as well.
The grand total of kilometres that were logged was 207,808 kilometres.
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Now, to put it into perspective, the circumference of the earth is just over 40,000 kilometres, so, really, NWT residents collectively walked around the earth circumference five times. Good job. Way to go to the NWT residents and way to go to the NWTRPA for putting this on.
I have a couple more stats to share here. The hours of walking equaled 48,918 hours of walking. On average, each participant accumulated 245 minutes of weekly exercise. Now, the Canadian physical activity guidelines suggest that each individual at least put in 150 minutes weekly in some type of activity. NWT residents went above and beyond that and put in 95 more minutes weekly, so good job to them.
I just want to make note that this program happens during some of our coldest and darkest months of the year, when some people might be going through depression, might be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, so this program gets people out, active and healthy.
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the NWTRPA for their ongoing hard work, dedication and commitment to the health and active lifestyles and well-being of the residents of the Northwest Territories. I would also like to congratulate all teams and all residents who participated in this great program. Good job and way to go. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
