Certainly the Minister is correct in terms of some discussions that have happened with the communities and North-Wright regarding solutions on this issue. We feel in the Sahtu that we’re going to pay if we don’t have those runways extended to the length that we would see benefitting the communities.
The Minister has referred to additional costs and that if we go to a different length of runway it means a higher category. The people in the Sahtu already pay high prices for their airline tickets. They use the small aircraft in those dangerous mountains, with respect to the weather, the terrain that we have to fly in. We are being penalized because of this runway that is not being extended in the Sahtu region. I point again to the incident that happened in Fort Good Hope, because of too small an aircraft and the type of aircraft that was used.
I’m here and I could be corrected on this one here, if we had a longer runway with more suitable aircraft that could fly high over the mountains, we wouldn’t be in the situation we had in Fort Good Hope.
Again, if we do nothing by 2010, we are going to be restricted with this type of aircraft. We’re paying a high cost for travel in the Sahtu. There’s a limited amount of freight that’s going to come in there and we’re going to continue using smaller aircraft. I know that it costs additional dollars to extend this runway with the maintenance, but I think we are being penalized in the Sahtu region.
I may need to be corrected on this also, but I hear that outside aircraft coming into the Sahtu are not going to be penalized for landing on our runways. It is only the people in the Sahtu who are going to be penalized. That’s what I’m hearing. If the Minister needs to correct me, so be it, but that’s what I’m hearing right now. We desperately need to look at ways to extend our runways up to at least 5,000 in Fort Good Hope and Deline right now because of the possible amount of oil and gas activity that could be happening in the Sahtu region. It’s busy up there. It’s been quiet this year because of the other factors taking place with oil and gas exploration. I want to make that known to the Minister. I appreciate his willingness to sit with us and continue talking.