Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA with regards to the idea or concept for a centre of excellence for athletes. I know we talked about this just this last week, looking at if this is an idea that’s floating around in his department to look at where there is raw talent in the communities in the North that can come together and start looking at what it will take to have a sports centre for these young people to come and excel, so that they can go either into the national or international arena and win some medals for the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of our sporting partners, Sport North, has put a business plan together for a proposed centre of sports excellence. We’re just in the process of reviewing that plan and we’ll try to work with our partners on the way forward.
I look forward to that business plan. That’s good news for this side of the table here.
I also want to ask the Minister, is there any thought to inviting some of the people in our small communities to have a discussion? Some of the discussions they had this morning with the Minister, some of our teachers in our small communities really contribute to sports in the communities. Deline has survived there for hockey. In Inuvik they had Ms. Peggy Curtis for badminton. Different teachers have played a big role in the lives in the small communities.
Do we have that type of avenue where these teachers or people in the communities could also be of assistance in developing some of this business case here?
Mr. Speaker, the Member raises a very good point. A lot of the teachers that have gone through the communities in years past have contributed a lot to sporting development in the communities. I think we see it in the different communities around. One community might be good in basketball because they have a basketball coach there. So, they’ve contributed a lot.
We recently had a sport forum with many of our sporting partners, and we plan on having another gathering of our sporting partners. There are always ways through them that all those who are serving the communities can contribute to the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Part of this discussion that I’m alluding to would be the wellness of these young athletes. I just had a really good discussion up in the Explorer Hotel with a lot of really exciting people putting together some good wellness packages.
I want to ask the Minister also on the health and wellness of this concept. Is that part of the discussion of a business plan on the centre of excellence for young athletes? Are we looking at a comprehensive model such as this one here?
This government contributes a lot to the health and well-being of our young people across the Northwest Territories. I think we have upwards of $3.6 million that we provide to many programs that affect the communities. Again, I haven’t had an opportunity to review the business plan yet. I’m just in that process right now. Once we review that and see if there’s a way moving forward, it will obviously take into account a lot of things if they do have a centre of excellence for sport development, nutrition and health and well-being. But first and foremost, our goal as a government is to contribute to the health and well-being and keep our young people across the Northwest Territories active.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
