Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last evening, I had the opportunity to host a Kam Lake constituency meeting in the Great Hall. I wanted to speak today about some of what I heard during discussions with constituents.
The riding of Kam Lake has an interesting mix of residential areas, two schools, Ecole St. Joseph and N.J. McPherson, the Multiplex and is also home to the largest industrial park in the Northwest Territories. This industrial park is the economic engine of our capital city and requires some much needed attention from both the City of Yellowknife and from our government.
I have spoken many times in this House of the need for a secondary access road into the city from Highway No. 3. We cannot afford to compromise public safety any longer. Constituents at my meeting are saying build the access road and again today I will say it once again. Work with the city and build this much needed access road.
The issue of service in Kam Lake Industrial Park was also high on constituents' minds. There has been much talk of the city and the Government of the Northwest Territories working together on an agreement to bring services to the Yellowknife Airport. This, Mr. Speaker, would be a fantastic undertaking for the city of Yellowknife. An airport as busy as YZF and an industrial park the size of Kam Lake Industrial Park should not be on trucked service. There will be some cost sharing needed and involved in getting services included as part of the access road construction and to the airport and, Mr. Speaker, as a government we need to be as flexible a partner as we can be.
Constituents also had concerns over the lack of bus service to the industrial park. Hundreds of people work there every day and public transit would be much welcomed. Also, there is inadequate street lighting and no garbage pick-up for residents. Mr. Speaker, I want my constituents to know that I'll take the next opportunity to raise these issues with city officials.
At the meeting we also discussed other items such as housing, sports funding and legislative initiatives that I'll bring up with the appropriate Ministers at a later date. I also shared with my constituents a map which shows that the boundaries are changing in the riding of Kam Lake, as well as in the rest of the Yellowknife ridings, for the next territorial election, which will take place this fall. Mr. Speaker, this was done in an effort to balance the seven Yellowknife ridings and I hope to have a map indicating the changes to the riding on my website early next week for constituents to have a look at. Mahsi.
---Applause