Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to take a little bit different tack on the Mackenzie Valley Highway proposal today. CBC Radio has recently been running a series of shows called How They Got Here. I want to tell you how highway infrastructure played a deciding role in my coming to the Northwest Territories.
As a student sitting in a Grade 12 geography class in a small town in south-western Ontario, I looked at an Atlas, I looked at a map of Canada, I thought about leaving home and where I would like to go. In Ontario, where I come from, there is a community about every five kilometres, so the thought of isolation wasn’t something that particularly was common to me. But I thought the North would be isolated. When I looked at the map and I saw that rail line and I saw that highway that went straight from Alberta to Hay River, Northwest Territories, I decided that was the place that I wanted to go.
The psychology of isolation is not something that I fully understand, but I do wonder how it impacts people who do live in the North who have very few exit options. The cost of air transport for communities that are cut off from any highway system is very prohibitive to people leaving. In my 35 years in Hay River I can’t really say that I have actually flown out of Hay River very many times, but it was somewhat reassuring to me to know that there was that daily jet service if I did want to leave. But I think people in small communities look at that airplane and no road and if it’s cost prohibitive I think it does play a part in...I think it can be discouraging to people and make them sometimes feel that if they did want to go someplace, it’s kind of hopeless.
In terms of attracting people to come to small, isolated communities -- that is supposing that you want more people like me in the Northwest Territories -- I think it’s a very interesting thought indeed as to how a Mackenzie Valley Highway would change people’s thoughts about coming into the further reaches of the North.
The benefits of a Mackenzie Valley Highway would be immense. All Members today are going to speak to that. The opportunity at this particular time to consider an undertaking of infrastructure such as this nature could only be a good thing and I will support all endeavours and pursuits of such a highway.