Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess in reality the status quo will remain until 1999. NTCL will deliver fuel and cargo with a tug and barge until the summer of 1999. That is what we are doing. We are, as the committee recommended, working towards direct resupply. I think it is important to get a more global view of why we are doing this. I often listen to the Member talking about the high birth rates, the very large number of young people in his constituency, the housing problems, job problems, et cetera, and that the government, in general, does not spend enough money there. I think most of the constituencies would share that. It is an issue that we need to work on.
When the CN rail line, and I think it was the Government of Manitoba said that they were going to be shutting down Churchill, were giving signals, that was a time when we, the government, decided to look seriously at different options. That was a time when we started pulling in all this information. There were different options considered and at one point we were looking at a hub in Rankin Inlet. After consultation with communities and with the Member and other MLAs, I personally put a stop to that and assisted Mr. Antoine at the time to set up the steering committee so we could look further at what we could do here.
As the information came in it became very clear that with direct resupply the government and the people of the Keewatin could save conservatively an astounding $65 million to $100 million over the next 20 years on the transportation costs alone of fuel. That means more money for the government to spend in other places. There will be less dollars for the hunter to buy gasoline for his snowmobile, less money that a home owner has to pay for fuel, et cetera. The list goes on. As a responsible Minister and as I said the other day, as someone that has great interest in making sure that we do things now to make sure that the future government of Nunavut is as financially secure as possible, this is something that you grab onto as soon as you hear it, $65 million to $100 million savings. I think it would be irresponsible for us not to go ahead with this.
That is why, despite the fact that I have great sympathy for the NTCL company, many of the people that run that company are my friends and associates and people I have known for a long time. So are the people of Arviat. I have been to that community several times. The mayor there is somebody I have known for many years. It is not my wish to do them harm or do things they do not like. At the same time, I have a responsibility, I believe, in making sure the present government does things to achieve the savings in the future for the people of Nunavut.