Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try not to do that any more, honourable Member, Minister of Finance, Mr. Dent. I thank the Members for the unanimous consent. Like I was saying, Mr. Speaker, we do have a gap in the logging end and in the falling and skidding for the simple reason the mill was down and we missed out in training some of our young people. The majority of the best skidder operators and the best fallers are at retirement age now and those are the people who worked many years in the bush. This part of the harvesting operation will retain, but it will still create 20 to 25 jobs for two and one-half months for local residents in the winter months. Great Slave Lake Forest Products Limited is, and will continue to utilize, soft log picker trucks to load, transport and unload logs for the licence area of the Fort Resolution sawmill. Mr. Speaker, these are soft logging trucks that have huge pickers on them that are a very high investment for people and logging companies out of Fort Resolution. They made that investment this year in December. The logging sawmill requested the companies in Fort Resolution to invest in these pickers, so people went out and did that. People actually went out and invested their own money in these pickers to bring these logs into the yard and they got paid. This was the first year of that operation, so hopefully it will continue so those people can recoup their investment as well.
You must understand that logging in the Northwest Territories is very difficult, very short period of time, and you have to make large investments to get any return on that money. The people of Fort Resolution are committed to this as well and they have proven that by investing dollars in equipment to actually go out and log. As well, as individuals I know that are long-term trappers have switched occupation and went and invested in skidders as well. We have also had, for the first time this year, a local contractor who went out and invested in equipment to build a winter road, and the Minister of Transportation can appreciate how much that costs, in order to put in winter roads and ice crossings and everything else and the investment of those people in that community. Once again, Mr. Speaker, the logging costs are projected at $41 a cubic metre and taking $10.30 per cubic metre for reforestation fees, that is what they are called, into consideration, the operational costs for logging is projected to be $30.70. Once we added $10.30 to it, that is one of the highest costs for logging in North America. The reason that is, is because of the stumpage fees. That is one of the main reasons and that is that reforestation, but they do not do that any more anyhow. But that is what we are paying this government for every metre, $10.30.
For those Members that know my area also can understand that the first 20 miles of getting in to any of the logging areas is just a floating bog and that has got to be some tough winter road building too, Mr. Speaker. It is one of the toughest areas to build winter roads in. Previously through this government, previous governments, we used to get roads to resources type funding and that was $25,000 a year outright grant to any company that had to put in winter roads to renewable resources and we managed to do that in the past.
Mr. Speaker, I could go on with this report for hours and hours. I think it would take me about two more hours to finish it. I am about one-tenth of the way through, but I did ask for unanimous consent and I asked for the Members goodwill to carry on and finish my statement. I do understand the rules of this House and I will not put the Members through two hours more of me reading this report. I will table it later in this House, but one thing I want is for it to be made very clear to the Members of this Legislative Assembly, especially to the Members of this government, is the sawmill in Fort Resolution is more than nuts, bolts and machinery. It is people, it is people's lives that this government has to make a decision on. There are not many choices. There is a clear path on how to recover. There is a clear path on how to make it work. It is up to you to take the right road. With that, Mr. Speaker, I thank you and I thank the Members in the House for allowing me to speak more than my allotted time. Mahsi.