Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am always pleased when I can get up in this House to relate a good news story about my home community. For years, Mr. Speaker, Hay River has been known as the transportation hub of the north. NTCL and its predecessors have been in operation in northern Canada for over 60 years. Mr. Speaker, Hay River is becoming a transportation hub for barge shipping to the north slope of Alaska. Traditionally, Hay River has been a beehive of frantic activity in the shipping and fishing industry and the associated activity in the summer months with different and somewhat less activity in the winter months. I am pleased to say, as a result of a shipping contract with NATCO Industries of Calgary, the NTCL yard in Hay River has been as busy as it is in the summer. The personnel normally laid off during the winter are all working.
The contract involves the shipping of a modular oil processing plant to British Petroleum, Badami Oil field located on the north slope of Alaska. The business community of Hay River is experiencing economic spin-offs of this project and the 80 NATCO sub-trades and contractors who are in Hay River putting the modules together.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to salute NTCL, a wholly aboriginal owned northern company for proving the viability of the Mackenzie River route to the north slope of Alaska. I would like to publicly commend NATCO of Calgary for giving a small northern community, like Hay River, the opportunity to prove its versatility to meet the technical support needs of a project of this magnitude. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind everyone of the can do attitude of the Hay River business community. Hay River is open for business. We have the infrastructure and the ability to work with industry to offer innovative solutions to their needs.
Mr. Speaker, we believe this project is just the first of many such projects to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause