Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mode of transportation has traditionally been a slow process. Inuit travel by dog teams in the winter and travel with kayaks and umiaks in the summertime. Some even walk, both in the winter and during the summer. My father has told me stories of when he was a boy, how they would walk to Baker Lake from their camp to trade for tobacco and other necessities for their camp. These trips would take him a week to two weeks. When the traders first started coming north, mail had to be delivered to Churchill, Manitoba, at least in the Keewatin Region. A person would go down to Churchill by dog team, and this would take anywhere from four to six weeks, depending on weather, dogs, food, et cetera.
However, Mr. Speaker, in this day and age, not only do we have dog teams and umiaks, but we have snowmobiles, boats and motors, cars, trains, and airplanes. These modes of transportation could take us thousands of miles in a matter of hours, and what concerns me is to go to the post office and find out that something that I or my wife had ordered two weeks ago is still not in.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Pudluk made a statement regarding this same subject during this session, and I am merely trying to make it apparent that in the East we still have some basic infrastructure problems, and this is one of them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.