Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people
of Beaufort-Delta have been waiting a long time to hear news of land sales in the Beaufort Sea. As we all heard, the record sale of $1.2 billion to British Petroleum is good news — opportunities for employment, business for the people of Beaufort-Delta. This has been a long time coming.
I had an opportunity to work in the Beaufort Sea during the ’70s and ’80s, when I worked on a drill ship, a manmade island. I had an opportunity to see the expertise that we had in the Beaufort Sea, by way of icebreaker technology, manmade islands, caissons, drill ship technology. All this expertise was developed in Canada, yet we lost that opportunity because of the downturn in the oil and gas industry in the Beaufort in the mid-’80s.
Mr. Speaker, through these opportunities came vast expertise by way of ice conditions, to environmental reviews, to wildlife monitoring — to a lot of initiatives that we have in place today by way of environmental regulations and also by how we monitor our environment, monitor the wildlife to ensure compliance with the regulatory systems we have in place. Canada was a world leader in Arctic exploration and development by way of drilling in the Arctic Ocean back in the ’70s and ’80s.
Mr. Speaker, this land sale will give Canada a footing to bring back that expertise and be able to expand that expertise not only for Canadians but for the rest of the world. In light of global warming, in light of what’s happened by way of exploration and development, we have to take hold of something that has already happened. This is nothing new to people of the Beaufort Sea. We had the opportunity of seeing it firsthand back in the ’70s and ’80s. People were able to take advantage of those developments back in the ’70s and ’80s. We are asking for nothing less than the rest of Canadians who would like to have that opportunity again.
Mr. Speaker, the final saying that I would like to leave with the rest of the Members here is that people of Beaufort-Delta have been true to the land for thousands of years. We will not jeopardize our environment for the sake of a development, but we realize that development is just as important as our environment. They do have to work hand in hand.
Mr. Speaker, I will be asking questions to the Minister of ITI on this matter later. Thank you.