Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister’s response in terms of likely having Bear River implemented in the life of this government because of the funding source…. I’m really disheartened to hear from the government in terms of the people of Sahtu that the Bear River Bridge project is on again, off again, on again.

The government thought they could build a bridge for $25 million at the time. When they came in, they came in at over $40 million. I think $25 million was not a very accurate number. Then they looked at de-scoping the project to get it off the bridge funding agreement. They went through that, and then somehow it doesn’t make it under the Building Canada infrastructure funding requirements.

I think the Minister just told my people that there’s no bridge within the life of this government — the Bear River Bridge. I don’t think the people are going to be very happy in terms of this bridge. It’s been designed. The steel was in Hay River, I understand; the steel now is on Kakisa Bridge. The Oscar bridge has been sitting there for a couple of years. People drive by it every winter. They look at this bridge while they drive by. It goes down to the river and comes up on the other side. They say: “Why don’t they fix this bridge, put the approaches in there? What are they waiting for? Why are they doing nothing to fix the bridge?”

A couple of years ago we had open water on the Mackenzie and the Bear River. Why doesn’t the government this year look at it and say that if we’re not going to have the Bear River Bridge, put some ice sprays there for the traffic? Improve the road system. That’s what I’m looking at in terms of what other alternatives they may have. To pull the Bear River Bridge out from under the feet of the people of the Sahtu is just not fair.

Certainly they can find money; there’s money there. It’s just not a priority, I guess. That’s what you’re telling the people today in the Sahtu. You’re telling the companies that rely on working with industry — gas, exploration, drilling…. For the next three years of this government.... At least you give them some things to think about in future planning. If they put ice sprays at the N’Dulee crossing for Husky, they certainly can put ice sprays on the Bear and on the Mackenzie and on other rivers.

That’s what my people are hearing today. All those past meetings we had in Tulita about the Bear River Bridge were good words for nothing. It’s disheartening to hear that. Yet they can invest in other areas.

I hope the government has a change of heart and looks at other areas where we can to improve ice crossings in terms of spray, like we did in Inuvik. We put an ice spray up in Tsiigehtchic, because they wanted to help the people in Inuvik bring their

groceries in, to bring their costs down — those companies that bring food into the small communities. Give my people some hope in the Sahtu and say we could bring in some ice sprays — spray the ice to build it up so we can have quicker access to opening it up. Do something like that.

You know, a couple of years ago a bunch of kids went to Norman Wells, and they got stuck on the ice road. How many hours were they stuck on the ice road because of a whiteout? People were pretty mad in Tulita, having the young kids on the road. They didn’t complain very much, but they were mad. If it happened anywhere else in the Northwest Territories, you’d hear an outcry. I know a mountain of investment has gone in, but it’s about time you had that mountain of investment go to the Sahtu. Look at Highway No. 1 and Highway No. 3, the amount of investment over the years: millions compared to us.

To ask for a bridge to go across, advance capacity building, invest in our companies for oil and gas…. It doesn’t look like we’re going to have a good chance of getting the bridge in place, to have plans to say: “Go ahead with it. We can spend this much and spend this much for our region.”

There’s one article in the newspaper that always talked about us being isolated. Other communities are isolated. What will it take for this government, for our people, to say yes in a year in this House and to go ahead with a bridge that means a lot to our people?

I don’t feel very confident, I guess, in terms of the project. I feel there are some good projects going on, but to hear that in the life of this government it’s not going to deal with any expansion, will not say, “Yes, you can go ahead with the Bear River Bridge….” It’s not very good to hear. I’m going to leave it at that in terms of this department.