(Translation) For some time now we have been putting in this request. It was said that in 1997 we would get our upgrading and we kept getting responses to that effect. Recently, when the Baffin Regional Council was still in existence, this was brought to the attention of the department. People are expecting to see some activity regarding their airstrip. The MLA before my time also brought this up as an issue.
For the people from Lake Harbour who I represent, this is a continuing problem. Like I said in my Member's statement, this continues to be a problem because, as I stated earlier, transportation occurs in our region by air. We are in a mountainous region and the weather is often quite windy. We are dependent on air flights and air activities for transportation. So, like I said, for people to have safe passageways of transportation, particularly those who have to travel on medical leave, our airstrips are very important.
Before something drastic happens, I want you to consider this seriously and hopefully we can get something done with the same goals in 1997 to become a reality in your main estimates. We hope that you keep this as a priority because studies were done on Lake Harbour to see if a new airstrip could be built. So this has been an ongoing issue, and we continue to make the same request even though we realize it would consume quite a bit of funding.
Another factor is that the population continues to grow and the number of people travelling back and forth grows, and we will be expecting to see this become a reality. I realize at this point that it's difficult to commit to the upgrading of our airport, but please consider this seriously. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.