Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about the upcoming Arctic Development Expo taking place in Inuvik from June 17th to the 19th. Mr. Speaker, this show was established in 2001 which is their 24th year, if my math is correct. Certainly, it started out as the Inuvik Petroleum Show, some may remember, in anticipation of the Mackenzie Valley pipeline at the time. And back when the show first began, we had as many as 600 delegates attending in Inuvik which was certainly an exciting time and also a great economic boom obviously for the region. It's an opportunity for governments, territorial governments, federal governments, Indigenous governments, NGOs to get together and discuss issues that are facing us all.
This year's theme, Mr. Speaker, is preparing for our future in a changing Arctic, and certainly on the heals of the Western Premiers' Conference that was held here in our capital, and the Premier spoke to that this morning, certainly the timing is good, and if you look at the agenda the themes that will be discussed up there are certainly very similar to what was discussed amongst the Premiers here in Yellowknife.
Some of the discussions, Mr. Speaker, I know Minister Wawzonek will be making a keynote presentation on the GNWT's strategic infrastructure. I know our Premier will be sending in his opening remarks as well. It does coincide with the Council of Leaders so the Premier won't be able to attend, but, certainly, we appreciate him being able to give some opening comments. Other people attending, other discussions, will be around critical infrastructure for Arctic security, discussions on affordable energy and efficient Arctic housing, sovereignty and security in a changing Arctic, as well as Senators Anderson from the NWT and Senator Duncan from the Yukon territory will be in attendance to discuss Arctic security and sovereignty planning. So, again, very, very similar to what we've been discussing in this House and certainly what the Premier has been bringing forward as well.
So super excited, Mr. Speaker. I wish Mayor Clarkson, his council, his amazing staff, and a group of volunteers that it takes to put this show on every year, every success. Inuvik has been great in pivoting as we moved away from the Mackenzie Valley pipeline project into other areas around energy and around developing the Arctic, and the show has been a huge success every year because of that. So wish them all the best and I look forward to seeing hopefully some of you there. If not, they do live stream it, and I have a copy of the agenda if you'd like to have it. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Members' statements. Member from the Sahtu.
