Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I grew up in the community of Fort Smith. Most of us know that Fort Smith was in its hey day the centre of transportation because it was situated at the foot of the rapids, 16 miles of pretty rough water. Freight had to be hauled either along the shore or, later on in years, along the roads they built to connect Fort Fitzgerald to Fort Smith.

Over the years, Mr. Speaker, there have been many methods of transportation in that area. First of all it was by york boats and then by oxen and horses. Mr. Speaker, when I was a child I remember seeing a boat, two ships, the Distributor and the Mackenzie which were used extensively for hauling freight up and down the Mackenzie River. In the 1950s both of those boats were situated at a place called Gravel Point and were destroyed by their owners, the Hudson's Bay Company. The boats were burned, and nothing remains of them except for a few small artifacts.

Mr. Speaker, as transportation techniques changed, we went from horses and oxen to steam and gas driven tractors. There are two pieces of equipment which I remember seeing on that portage, they were half tracks and half wheels. They were very slow and noisy. However, they played an important part in getting freight across the portage. They were owned by the Ryan brothers, Mickey and Pat. Later when the Hudson's Bay Company took over those units, they belonged to the Bay and were later purchased by a businessman.

Mr. Speaker, those pieces of equipment risk, again, being destroyed or lost to the territories. In my opinion, they are historical artifacts and they belong in the territories. We run the risk of seeing those pieces of equipment, that spent all of their lives in the territories, going to museums in southern Canada unless we do something about that. I know that the businessman who owns these pieces of equipment is anxious to see them remain in the territories if this government is receptive to acquiring them. I wonder if somehow or another our government can enter into negotiations to make sure that these artifacts...

---Applause