Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday we had the honour of hearing from our Premier through the Premier’s Awards. Last week we had seen and heard very well about the great work through the Education Awards. Recently, many of us attended the Sport North Awards to recognize sport, and often we hear about the great volunteer awards, literacy awards, fire service awards, and the list continues on.
A noticeable absent group to recognize is environment awards. Why are there no environment stewardship awards? Let us use this opportunity with what better way to recognize their leadership and commitment many Northerners dedicate themselves day to day to improve our lives.
This government could use the occasion to say to Northerners, “You matter. The work that you do matters.” It could look at many wonderful categories, such as recognizing children in the schools. There’s not a day that goes by when I visit schools in my riding, such as J.H. Sissons or Mildred Hall, that I see the kids running around, making sure that there is a tomorrow through the work that they do. They collect the pop cans and bottles and they do everything and are committed to it in a manner that says they care about tomorrow and care about the world they live in.
There are community groups, and certainly community superstars. You need to look no further than the late Doug Ritchie who was a great community champion for the environment, or even local guys such as Kevin O’Riley, whose heart is dedicated to such passion about tomorrow and making sure our environment is here.
You have great groups such as Ecology North and Diavik. Ecology North, I need not spend a lot of time but to say that we know the great work they do. Diavik might be a business in business, but when they installed the wind farm it wasn’t just about the bottom line, it’s about tomorrow; and they never miss an opportunity on their own time to go out and tell people about what a great project it is, and how they can conserve.
What you’re hearing here is a chance to reaffirm the great work people do. But it’s not just outside of government, it’s inside government too.
An annual environment award could recognize the stewardship that we do internally through good public policy in many departments such as our Giant Mine folks, who are out there saying, “We can do a better job for tomorrow, and we’re going to make sure it’s healthy tomorrow because of the work we do.”
Finally, I want to finish off with a saying, it’s referred to as the unsung hero. It’s a simple phrase but it describes the person who makes a substantial difference to the world and to many but goes unrecognized. Let’s not let that work go unrecognized. Let us consider this opportunity and we can make a better tomorrow through this type of leadership. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Mr. Dolynny.
