Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today you have and will hear Members of this House speak passionately about the need to move forward with the Mackenzie Valley Highway. The people of the Mackenzie Valley and the NWT have been saying that it must be built for years. Cece McCauley and her Women Warriors have been champions for the cause.

The Mackenzie Valley Aboriginal Corporation, or MAC group, has been actively lobbying the federal and territorial governments to proceed with the development of the highway.

Historically, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker saw the advantages to developing the road to resources. Under his direction and leadership, a vast amount of roads and railways were built in order to open up northern regions of Canada to create easier access to resources. Yet his vision has never been fully realized. A Canadian highway system stretching from coast to coast to coast still does not exist.

The 15th and 16th Assemblies have identified the

Mackenzie Valley Highway as a priority. The 15th Assembly developed a proposal titled “Connecting Canada: Coast to Coast to Coast” to complete the Mackenzie Valley Highway to the Arctic Coast and submitted it to the federal government in November 2005. This proposal outlined how the highway will facilitate resource development that will bring significant benefits to all of Canada, how the highway will ensure Canada’s sovereignty in the North, how the highway will improve Canada’s northern security and emergency response, how the highway will support the economic and social development of Northerners, and how the highway

will improve the North’s capacity to adapt to climate change. The proposal is on-line on the GNWT website and I encourage everyone to give it a read.

In these difficult economic times a national project is required. The GNWT cannot afford to build this national highway and, although important to the residents of the NWT, this must be a federal project. The federal government continues to talk about stimulus projects. The construction of the Mackenzie Valley Highway addresses and supports all of these statements. As a government we need to encourage the federal government to complete this national highway project and connect Canada from coast to coast to coast.