Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd just like to follow up with the Minister. In her last answer, she said that these athletes actually did the transportation to go to Yellowknife, and if they had stayed in Fort Simpson, they would have been able to catch the charter. Can the Minister please elaborate and explain to us what she meant by that answer? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe there were a couple of youth who, because they were weathered in, took the chance and they actually drove to Yellowknife to see if they could get a flight, which they couldn't get as well. It was, I believe, weathered in.
My understanding was that, the next day, the weather cleared in Simpson. I may be wrong, but that is my understanding, that the weather cleared and that they might have been able to get to the event if they had stayed. That may be incorrect, but what is important to note is that Sport North did pay for flight arrangements for all of the youth. In trying to be fair, I cannot accommodate youth who take it upon themselves to find alternative travel arrangements That would be hard to determine, and then it would be looking at which youth qualified, and which youth should not. In trying to be fair to all, Sport North did provide the transportation, and I'm guessing that Sport North also may have lost out unless they had the additional insurance for them, so I can't ask them to reimburse for flights that didn't happen.
I guess I should explain the scenario here. These athletes here were fogged in, so they jumped in a vehicle so they could try to catch the charter going into Yellowknife, or from Yellowknife to Inuvik. That was the charter that was not successful. Will the Minister get the department to look at reimbursing them for their gas for their trip?
As I said before, the Sport North Association paid for transportation costs to get all the youth there. Based on that, then, I cannot ask them to refund for youth who took alternative methods. I will look into it, though, and make sure that Sport North only had the charter from Yellowknife and that there was no other option, understanding that, of course, the charter, if there was one from Simpson, was weathered in. If there was a charter arranged to get the youth from Simpson, then I will not reimburse that. If there was an expectation that the youth would have to find their way to jump on a charter and that was detailed and explained to them, then we will look at reimbursing them.
I don't think Sport North got the money. I think the government gave Sport North the money to do these games, so that's why I'm asking the Minister to look at using this money that the government has given Sport North to reimburse these athletes who now have not had the opportunity to participate and try out for the NWT Games. Will the Minister get them to look at it and reimburse them again?
The MLA is correct. The Government of the Northwest Territories provided Sport North with the funding to provide transportation for the youth. As stated earlier, I will check into Sport North and, if they did have a charter, so transportation arranged from the community of Fort Simpson, and the youth did not get a chance to do that, then I will not reimburse them out of pocket because that was part of the deal. If they were asked to make their way to Yellowknife to get onto a plane and they were not reimbursed for that, then I will look into that and provide reimbursement for that cost if that was a requirement to get there.
