Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, like my honourable colleagues from the Umingmaktuuq region, eastern Arctic, my concern, the concern of the people that I represent, is in the area of airports. In this case, air travel, Mr. Chairman, within the past ten years we have come a long way. We have modern airports in our community. We have terminal buildings. We have non-directional and directional beacons in the community. We have come a long way since 30 years ago.
One of the main concerns of the travelling public in the eastern Arctic, I presume I speak for them, I am not from that area. At the same time, this is a concern coming from my area. In some cases, we do not have the luxury to travel by the land and, in this case, we do not have highways, we do not have the luxury of travelling by vehicle to the next major hospital, when a medical emergency is at hand. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate, and most people will, the fact that the government has given the communities some support in maintaining their airports. In fact, our airports are now classified, recognized by the Ministry of Transportation and they were constructed to the specifications of the ministry of this country. As one of the renowned scientists, Mr. Murphy once said, "what can go wrong, will eventually go wrong". There may be times when the medium-sized aircraft is within a vicinity of the airport and has to have an emergency landing within that vicinity. In some cases, our airport runways are not long enough to accommodate or facilitate aircraft that are in emergency situations. There are times across the territories we hear equipment burned down, buildings burned down.
In the eastern Arctic we depend highly, if not solely, on air travel. What happens in the community of Taloyoak, in the event that a vehicle or equipment used to maintain the runway is burned down? What happens in the event that the equipment that is used to service a community, in this case a water truck, maybe a sewage truck burned down? What happens if the garage burns down that is there to house all the essential equipment used for community service? There would be nothing left.
I think we have to plan. We have to be prepared for the worst case scenario. In Taloyoak, we have a runway and it was built to specifications of the Arctic airports. In this case, subsequent to Ministry of Transport Canada, it is not long enough to facilitate a medium-sized aircraft. When I talk about a medium-sized aircraft I could be talking about 747s Taloyoak that is able to land in Taloyoak.
About the same time, we have lear jets. There are times when we have emergency cases in the community. Someone is sick and we do not have the luxury, as I indicated earlier, of having to travel by road to go to a hospital, obviously equipped with all the necessary equipment to deliver in emergencies. So, Mr. Chairman, we have to understand that in this day and age, we should have the ability in the eastern Arctic, especially when we do not have the luxury of road travel, we do not have medical centres with all the necessary equipment to take on the emergency situation, and in some cases, we do not even have a practical, long enough runway to facilitate emergency situations. This is the case in Taloyoak. People in Taloyoak have approached me many times. This is still an issue. The people of Taloyoak, the mayor, SCO, on some occasion have had the opportunity to meet with the Minister. Mr. Chairman, in this day and age, we have instrument landing systems in some airports, some communities with instrument landing systems, and have the luxury of having a road to travel to medical centres. We have to realize for public safety, Mr. Chairman, to maintain the necessity of air travel in the Nunavut area, eastern Arctic. We have to try to be sensitive,
be understanding and try and accommodate those communities that need these facilities. In other areas, as the western Arctic, there are means to travel around. We have roads around here, we have highways and we have different types of aircraft, but in the eastern Arctic we do not have that. You are lucky if you have two different airline companies travelling on schedule to your community.
In my region we only have one that is on schedule. We do have a chartered airline in Cambridge Bay. I am thankful for that. I want to express my appreciation, but there are times when the community is short supplied. When commodities and other essentials are unavailable in the winter time, the only way to get those things is by air travel, but the airports, in some cases are not long enough to facilitate them. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for allowing me to express my concern. At the appropriate time I will be asking questions. Thank you.