Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It would be remiss if I did not follow-up on those comments by my colleague and the response of the Minister. The areas in the north western part of the territories: the Beaufort, Delta, and Sahtu regions, have had a history of various boom-cycles, such as the construction of the D.E.W. line sites, the construction of the Town of Inuvik in the mid-1950s, the large amounts of money and wages which were earned by people working in the oil and gas exploration phases in the 1980s, and the construction of the Norman Wells pipeline in the mid-1980s. Subsequently, each of these have been followed by periods of inactivity. There is no activity today and people who have been used to working have, in many cases, learned trades, and who have a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to these types of projects, now have a lot of time on their hands. We have followed that up lately with the land claims, and my colleague mentioned that the groups who have successfully negotiated land claims are now looking for investment opportunities. There are also other organizations, not only the ones who have negotiated land claims, like the Native Development Corporations, which have experience, knowledge, and a good track record in terms of investments and how to spend their money and do things properly.
To follow-up on Mr. Nerysoo's comments, this government should be actively negotiating with these northern native investment groups, to talk about the possibility of using some of their money, their business organizations, and their construction companies to do some of the work. I think we may find that there will be lesser of a demand on our capital budgets, with perhaps a transfer somewhere in terms of O & M, but the offset will be the benefits to the local economies in terms of wages, the knowledge and the experience the people will gain. I hope we will end up with many more trades people with meaningful projects on their hands.
Because there is no industrial activity up in the area I represent tourism seems to be the focus. Tourism is obviously a fairly big area but it ties in with the renewable resources sector and the transportation linkages. They all are vital to a successful tourism industry. In all of these areas, especially the renewable resources area, which comprises handicrafts, fishing, lodges, guiding, etc., our northern people do not need a lot of college degrees. They have earned their knowledge by doing what they do best, living off the land. With some cultural awareness in terms of the people they have to cater to and the treatment they expect, very few dollars have to be spent in training these people to do the things they do best. We need infrastructure, safe and expanded transportation links throughout the Northwest Territories, because the people who stay here do not just go to one place. They have to travel long distances and in many cases they stop at two or three different places to get to their final destinations. Statistics prove that tourists, especially because we have a highway link from the Yukon, make the decision when they come up the highway to take that loop from Dawson to Inuvik. I think there is a lot of potential. I am pleased that the Standing Committee on Finance has initiated work in terms of looking at a new gambling facility in that area because people who come up the Dempster get a taste of that when they hit Dawson. I think that we should look at Inuvik if any facility is going to be built because a high level of traffic comes up that highway. These are some general comments. We have things to work with. There are people and organizations who are ready, willing and able to work. We need a little more coordinated fast action type of approach to getting some of these things done. Renewable resources are not new; we have talked about fishing, tanneries, carving, sewing. All those things are there, and it is just a matter of sitting down with the groups and getting the projects going. All too often we continue to talk and study in a lot of cases, and I think the time is past for this type of talking. We must start doing. Thank you.