Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad I have an opportunity to speak to this motion generated by all the Members. We share the same interest of building our Mackenzie Valley Highway and completing it right up to Tuktoyaktuk. The time is right now that we take initiative and jump on the federal government to say, look, this is something that our North wants.
I think the key thing that I mentioned in my Member’s statement was that we have to develop a joint strategy. I know that the Mackenzie Valley Aboriginal Corporation is doing their lobbying. I know that the Minister is doing his share as well. But I believe that what Ottawa likes to see is a combined effort, that we’re at the door at the same time, lobbying them. This means that we’re unified in what we want and I believe that’s important. I urge the Minister and our government to take the lead in this, sit down with the MAC group, develop a joint strategy for going to Ottawa and talking to the Minister of Transportation, to the infrastructure
Ministers, to get support from our Member of Parliament, and some of the opposition parties as well. All these are key in Ottawa. They operate much like us. The Ministers have to be lobbied from all sectors to show that there is support; not only unified support from the North but also that we’ve done our legwork in Ottawa. All that has to be done soon, because ever since the federal government announced their infrastructure plan for Ottawa they’ve gotten many, many infrastructure projects being lobbied and bandied about. Many of them are probably further advanced than ours. So they’re there and knocking at the doors. In fact, I think Minister Flaherty was in the news the other day saying how are we going to get this money out when there’s so many challenges, so many projects out there. I think our key thing is we have to get ours on that book too. Just how to develop that.
The important thing, too, if I can get specific to when that highway was first constructed in the ‘70s, was that it was created through a federal initiative. But the whole thing about it was that we created a project called Hire North. It was about hiring Northerners, getting as many Northerners involved in that project. It was about training them. In fact, what happened was we trained a whole generation of heavy equipment operators. We provided, at that time, the stimulus for aboriginals to become business owners and a whole skilled force that was around for the construction industry. In fact, after the project was completed it benefited many other northern projects throughout the North, that Hire North project. We still feel the benefits from those people who learned and trained from that Hire North project. But it’s time for another generation to step forward and do that again. It’s time for the federal government to step forward and provide us those resources to train our people, to provide a whole level of stimulus and a whole level of new workforce. The investment in jobs, put money in our people’s projects, and it’s also investment into the North.
As well as the federal government, one of their big projects that’s been at their door for many, many years, of course, is the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline project. Everybody up North here has always told any federal Member of Parliament or any federal Minister that the cheapest way, the best way to provide a stimulus package to the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline project is to build a road. And here we are at the juncture. I believe that. I always say the point of power is in the moment. Now is the time to act. We have to sell this point, that here’s another way that if you’re indeed interested in the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, provide us the resources and the guarantee that we can fast track this Mackenzie Valley Highway project.
I concur with Mr. Abernethy that it’s not only an NWT project, it’s a national project. It will take joint
effort. I believe we can get it done. It’s important to all Canadians. I think in my Member’s statement, as well, I mentioned that the road will begin from Simpson and developing a bridge is very important and I believe that starting at the Liard River Bridge is equally important to this strategy. In fact, I think I mentioned it last week in a Member’s statement that we have to start doing some baseline work around bridges and provide at least a bird’s eye view of how much they’re going to cost. I think I mentioned a class D estimate. I believe we can come up with the resources to do that in our next business planning cycle or capital planning cycle. At least provide some of those resources to get that baseline work done so we know where we stand. It will probably also be part of redoing our Connecting Canada proposal as well. I’m not too sure if the Minister has looked at that yet, but it’s indeed a lot of work that went into Connecting Canada. It’s a well-thought-out, well-planned package, and I believe that the ministry is going to have to sit down, redo it, provide a nice package that we can present to Ottawa. In fact, in this case it will probably have to be a joint effort working with the Mackenzie Valley group, because they’ve got their own engineering estimates. They’ve got a lot of the background work done. In fact, they’ve already got agreements, as well, with a lot of the regional corporations and regional groups throughout the valley.
Just in closing, it’s a very good package, a very good motion. I urge our government to move forward with it as quickly as we can. Like I said, there are many infrastructure projects from across Canada that have been bandied about in Ottawa and we have to get our foot in the door. Just showing a united front, that it’s something that all Northerners support, that all aboriginal groups support in the North and we, as a government, support will go a long ways in opening up eyes in Ottawa.
There is no better way to stimulate our economy by a huge infrastructure like this. It will employ people. It will create training. That is one of our roles in government. I believe this fits it to a tee. With that, Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion and thank Members for providing such a worthwhile motion. Mahsi cho.