Robert C. McLeod

It’s not something that we are looking at right now. I know one of our sporting partners might be looking at something along those lines. But our sporting partners do provide a lot of workshops and that in the communities. They identify potential up-and-comers. We have a number of programs within the department that supports. Once they get to a higher level we have the Elite Athlete Performance Grant and we’ve had a lot of uptake on that. We have a lot of athletes competing and doing well. So, there are a number of programs that we offer.

Again, the concept is very good. One of the challenges...

We will do our consultation with the Aboriginal governments and get their views known. Again, the particular piece of property that we’re discussing, once the interim withdrawal expires, then we would consider taking leases on this particular piece of property. The issue we’re facing is we have had a lot of concern from folks around the capital that they find that too many of the areas are overpopulated and that’s one of the reasons we are doing this work, is we want to identify, through the rec leasing framework that MACA did… There was a lake that we had identified that had some potential...

Recreational is one of the highest demands here in and around the city. We have a focus area that we have withdrawn from any further potential leases until we do all the work to be sure that these areas sustain further development. We don’t want to be crowding these recreational areas. A lot of folks put up a small cabin and then they want to go out there for quiet enjoyment. That’s my definition of recreational, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Obviously, we want to work with the community and bring some of the wishes of the community forward, but this was a plan that was already in the works, and we will continue to see if we can carry out the plan. Once we do that, our officials at the regional level would work with them on the design, best practices, efficiency and the whole thing of financing. We will work with them on that, then the decision will be made whether to bring this forward or not, or begin the actual construction. There are some issues with the existing one, so that would almost cause this one to be a priority. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple of Pages from Inuvik Twin Lakes that have been working here all week: Dustin Smith and Chantel Schab, and they’ve been chaperoned by my constituency assistant, who I recognized the other day without saying her name. My constituency assistant is Leah Ipana, who’s chaperoning them. We appreciate all the work that the Pages do during our time in session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I believe I said it’s been in place for about three years now while we’re doing the work for the first part of it through Municipal and Community Affairs, as we’re doing the rec leasing policy framework. So we are anticipating that we’ll be done by mid-2016.

We have to identify a lot of areas within the focus area. We are looking at opportunities to possibly release some lots for leasing because these lots are developed and are within developed areas. We are looking at that possibility. We are expecting to make an announcement very soon on whether that’s going to go ahead or not. So, there will...

The intent of not taking any applications at all is so we can concentrate on the focus area and what it can sustain. I take the Member’s point, though, about just taking applications and not processing them and I take her point and I’ll have a discussion with officials. We need to make sure that we’re able to concentrate on the work at hand, get the rec policy framework done and then we can move forward in trying to identify potential spots in the focus area for possible lease opportunities. This is a huge issue right in the focus area because that’s where the greatest demand is. Across the...

We need to take all these into consideration because, at the end of the day, getting our kids active is most important first of all. We have a number of active after-school programs that we support. We have, as Member Moses spoke to today, the Traditional Games championships going on here in the capital for the next couple days and it’s a great opportunity for, as the Member said, a lot of kids from communities getting together, trying out the games of other cultures. I’ve had the opportunity to go there a couple times and they enjoy that. They’re actually quite competitive.

Getting our kids...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would like to see all of our young people in the small communities, or in all of the Northwest Territories pick up physical activities, sport being a good one. Through this government in the 16th and 15th Assemblies we’ve dedicated a lot of funds to that effect, and we’re starting to see the results of it now. I talked about the Arctic Winter Games a couple years ago when we had 27 of the 33 communities represented by athletes, and I think that indicates a lot of the good work that some of our sporting partners are doing. The Aboriginal Sport Circle, Sport North, the...

In this particular case that area is withdrawn and we have made it known that we are not entertaining any leases on any of the areas that are withdrawn. This would, I suppose, qualify as a recreational area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.