Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. There’s not really a whole lot to add to what all that has been said in the House here today on the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
I’ll just make a couple of comments on the statement by Minister Michael McLeod saying 3 percent of the people of the Northwest Territories have no access, winter or otherwise, at all from the highway. That includes Lutselk’e.
I know that the benefits from this Mackenzie Valley Highway are tremendous. I know for Tu Nedhe it is employment for the guys out of Fort Resolution that are heavy equipment operators, the guys out of Lutselk’e that are heavy equipment operators and so on.
I think one of the key things is that when the government is able to build a highway through communities and effectively lower the cost of living in those communities, then we are able to make a concentrated effort on the communities that do have a high cost of living that have no highway access at all, like winter road access like Lutselk’e. I think, when you take an issue and you concentrate it down on the very worst of it, then the communities that have no winter road or an all-weather highway access like Lutselk’e, Ulukhaktok, Paulatuk and Sachs Harbour in Mr. Jacobson’s riding, then I think we are able to then make better progress. Right now, the issue is so spread out that it is difficult to try to get right down to concentrating on which areas of cost of living we are going to address.
As I mentioned in my Member’s statement, the impacts and benefit of tourism, I think that is probably bigger than even the actual construction. There will be a tremendous amount of business and, regionally, the spinoffs from the construction of this highway, not only the operators but the businesspeople and everything that it takes to have that many people working in the Northwest Territories, there are tremendous economic spinoffs from that. Once that is completed, I think the fact that you are able to have communities that are connected, you have a good loop for tourists and so on. I think those tourists that come up do leave
money behind in the Northwest Territories and that is the idea. That is a reason they come. I think that is another thing that is going to be very positive if this Mackenzie Valley Highway was to be built, elimination of isolation.
I know there are issues sometimes with some elders that don’t want to see an all-season road because of the social impacts and so on. That happened in the past. There are communities that stop the highway from going right through their community because of the fear of social impacts that accompany an all-season highway. I think those were the times then.
I think today we have dealt with a lot of those types of impacts. We have dealt with it certainly when the diamond industry has come into the Northwest Territories and a lot of money that has come to Yellowknife and surrounding communities. We have had to deal with the social impacts of that, socio-economic impacts. I think that if we are cautious and we work with the communities and so on, that we can deal with those things.
I think when you put people on the highway, you do make them independent a little bit. You are relieving the dependency on the government. You are allowing people to get out, to travel. And if it is travel for employment, it is a lot easier to put your family in a vehicle and travel somewhere. If you are travelling on holidays, it is cheaper and so on. I think those will benefit.
Like I indicated in my Member’s statement, I do believe that there will be a reduction in the reliance of social programs in that community. Going back to what I just said earlier, once you have less people relying on something, then it is a lot easier for the government to concentrate on the people that are still on the social programs and so on, and easier to work with them and a smaller group and, for sure, more progress will be made.
I support the Mackenzie Valley Highway definitely. I think it has a lot more benefits I think than what we have come up with here today. I think we will recognize that and will see that when the time comes when the highway is built. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.