Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, will be supporting the motion. I think Fort Simpson airport is a regional airport, and I think we can’t downgrade that service. We have similar airports in Inuvik, Norman Wells, Yellowknife. They do connect the North to other jurisdictions by way of the Yukon.
Also, as Mrs.
Groenewegen mentioned, we’ve
learned from our decision to look at the whole area of ferry operations. We’re seeing that supp coming forward in the next couple of days. A lot of forced-growth items are because of the privatization of those contracts. Negotiating with the unions and whatnot is a forced-growth item that is having an effect on contractors providing that service, because the unions are now basically demanding northern allowances and everything else.
Again, I think it’s important to realize that this is part of the Northwest Territories infrastructure, and we have to realize it’s a very critical link to the economic viability of the North by way of the pipeline route that’s going to go through Fort Simpson, the oil and gas potential, the tourism potential, the Nahanni Park expansion. This is a very unique economic stimulus to the economy of the Deh Cho region and the Northwest Territories.
For the sake of the economies of these regions we should not be laying people off. If anything, we should be hiring more people in those regional centres to generate and stimulate the economies
and finding other areas where we can reduce those costs.
An area that was mentioned earlier, by way of a motion, is that we can find savings by looking at energy plans, looking at wasted energy and reducing the costs, by way of ferry operations, how we operate and maintain our equipment, and how we service our warehouses. There are savings we can produce simply by changing the way we do business, without laying people off.
With that, I will be supporting the motion. I think we have to realize that this airport is an essential, critical infrastructure of the Territories. It is a regional airport and should be treated like a regional airport and not downgraded to something lower than that.