Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Justice made a Minister’s statement early in this Assembly regarding the Aboriginal Policing Program. Today I’m very happy to say that we have a young fellow in Inuvik who is participating in that Cadet Program and I look forward to seeing the fruits of his hard work, as he’s been a young guy trying to get into the program for quite a number of years. Although it is a Cadet Program, it’s going to teach him all the skills that he needs to further his career.
The fellow that I’m talking about is Gerald Pascal. I’ve had the pleasure of working with him in the past. He’s a volunteer. He’s a youth ambassador. He’s an Inuit games demonstrator. He also volunteers for the local fire department. He’s very involved and I’m very happy to see him in this program. I’m really excited for all the cadets that are in this program as they move forward.
At this time I would like to wish Gerald and all the other cadet recruits the best of luck and success on the start of their journeys into a great community career that’s going to have a positive impact on our local people and be a role model for our future generations as we move forward here.
It’s a great program. I’m really glad to see it’s going through. I’m really glad to see that our local Aboriginal youth are taking advantage of that.
Just to wrap up here, sometimes we get so wrapped up in our jobs, especially during budget session, we sometimes don’t have time to look at some of the real impacts on our communities and people.
At this time, as we’re closing up the budget session, that we can start to focus on what is a very devastating issue in the Northwest Territories, and that is the Nahanni Butte situation. The residents, leaders, and people that are putting in endless hours to help out these residents. I look forward to putting some focus on that and helping out my colleague from the Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
