Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I surely want to thank the Members for their comments in terms of this motion here. There are three eras that I look at in terms of the Northwest Territories. I look at the first era I spoke of earlier today, about the stories of our people here from the lard pails to the oil pails generation. Then somewhere down the line we went from the moose skin boats to the jet boats. Now today we’re talking about the goat roads to the gravel roads.
Certainly there are lots of discussions from our communities talking about this motion. Some very good comments I have heard and taken notes on this motion. I heard some very good ideas about how and if we could build and how to get the attention of the federal government.
When you go into our communities, any of our communities, and you have coffee or tea with people and sit and listen and talk to them, as Mr. Miltenberger has said, some of our communities do not have access all year round. In my region when the winter road is open, there is lots of excitement. When it’s closing there is also lots of excitement,
because people have to come back with truckloads of groceries that could be bought at cheaper places in the South here.
The one question I’ve been asked over many times is how come we are unable to build an all-season road up the Mackenzie Valley. How come, in this day and age, we can’t be able to get together and build this road? You certainly heard around the table, there’s lots of complexities in terms of how do we get this road built. You heard a lot of issues that will come forward. Some people do favour. Some people want to wait and see what type of impacts it may cause or bring. The access, as Mr. McLeod has listed in terms of the percentage, maybe there’s something this government could look at introducing a legislation that no community be left behind in terms of the equality and fairness of all people in the communities of the Northwest Territories.
You heard Members talk very expertly in terms of the benefits that this highway could be a major contributor not only to the Northwest Territories but to the rest of Canada. You heard about the exploration, the tourism, decreasing the cost of goods, and increasing the standards of living in our communities. We also heard from notable authors on the study of the Mackenzie Valley Highway from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ’90, and the federal government’s statements on sovereignty in the North.
This motion we need to put on the books, as the Premier said. That is the key to the Mackenzie Valley Highway. Put it on the books and the federal government’s office. We have the willingness, as has been noted by Robert C. McLeod, that we have well-trained people in our communities. You all know in your own communities’ people who can operate machines, people who can get up and do some really good work in terms of the projects that are happening in your communities. Some of them are waiting to put the heavy metal to the ground and start working on this Mackenzie Valley Highway.
I heard how do we get the attention of the federal government. I think the other night when I was watching a movie with my boy, Horton’s movie I think it is, with the little village and the flower plant there. Anyway, my son loves it. This elephant is carrying around this little flower. The other animals want to trample it. He’s trying to save this little village. So in order for the elephant to get the other animals to believe that this is really truly a little community down here, they had to make noise. But they couldn’t break through the sound barrier until they got the whole community up and rattles and roaring and yelling and that. They finally broke through the sound barrier because of a little boy that has an invention. Anyhow, my son loves that
movie. I think that scenario is something like in Ottawa. How do we break the sound barrier for them to hear? I think Mrs. Groenewegen talked about that. What a novel idea to have one of our elders who has been most vocal in our papers. Some people read it very passionately and some people read them for other purposes. But she’s always been very consistent in talking to us as politicians and talking to us as leaders about opening up the resources and having the Mackenzie Valley Highway be the forefront in the government’s eyes. I’m thinking here why not have something like Mrs. McCauley situated in Ottawa on the front lawn with a tent or tepee, if you want and give her some living expenses, and constantly rattle the halls of Ottawa and the federal government? To yell at them, because that’s what I’m hearing. It’s the federal government’s responsibility for construction and maintenance of the highway.
Yet when we want to make a statement, I think we have to do something radical also as people in the Northwest Territories. They passionately are looking forward to opening this road. As Mrs. Groenewegen has also said, it’s natural. Members talked about northern and aboriginal corporations getting involved. I think that’s very significant in the areas we have in the Northwest Territories.
I read somewhere that 44,000 construction workers were laid off last year. This project alone in our regions, when you look at our own communities, how many operators are there? How many slashers in terms of clearing the areas? How many administrative workers do we have? There’s not enough. We’re going to need some people to help us. If we plan it right, Northerners will be put first on the project. Northerners will benefit first on this project, then we’ll invite the outside people to help. I think that is the way to go from the communities on this project here.
The Mackenzie Valley and the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline are at a crossroads. It’s been noted by Members that this project, should it go ahead, could save the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline millions, if not billions, of dollars. But we were told that they and Ottawa, the pipeline companies do not want to see this project tied with the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline. They have their reasons. However, I think this project here should be the first to go.
There are lots of reasons why we should make this go. There are a number of meetings already happening in the Mackenzie Valley. It happened with the members of various communities down the Mackenzie Valley in 1998-1999 on the discussion. There’s lots of information out there.
I want to say that the CANOL Road, when it was built in the 1940s, took 30,000 men 13 months to
get the oil flowing from Norman Wells to Whitehorse. Surely we can do something like that in the Northwest Territories. It’s critically important that people in the Northwest Territories also look at the environment in terms of our land. It’s very important and I think that approach should be in the forefront when we start looking at mega projects, how we are going to protect our land, our water, and our air.
Mr. Speaker, coming from a community that has no roads in terms of all-season roads, it’s very difficult to say how much and badly we need to look at all-season roads in our regions. Mr. Jacobson is right; when we have to travel, we pay the high cost of getting airline tickets, we fly out to the communities. Some of the families leave during the winter to take their families out for holidays, even when there is school. You just can’t afford those types of prices. Sometimes people on the Mackenzie River in my region jump in their boat and drive down to Wrigley and get off, jump in another vehicle and take off.
Ms. Lee is right; the price of food is astronomical in terms of what we pay in our small communities. I know the Minister of Transportation has tried various options. I think we need to support him with all the people of the Northwest Territories on this one focussed initiative.
Mr. Krutko talked about the Mackenzie Aboriginal Corporation. I, too, met with them and I met with the regional leaders. This is one corporation that is trying to assemble leaders and corporations together to look at this project here as a means to open up and sustain the Northwest Territories in terms of its resources and economics.
Mr. Speaker, it has been noted by Prime Minister Diefenbaker and those who served in his Cabinet understood very well about vision and his leadership abilities to open up the road to resources. This Conservative government has the ability today to put a stamp on what the former Conservative government did; to end it here. I would like to thank the Members because it’s been on very few and rare occasions that Members join together on a motion and see how consensus government works and creating positive benefits for all people in the Northwest Territories.
We’ve come a long way in the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, yet we have many, many, many years to go yet to become a true partner in Canada. I think by this project here, this one would unite not only the people in the Northwest Territories but it would unite us with the rest of Canada.
Mr. Speaker, it’s been said the greatest progress we have made and the greatest progress we have yet to make is in the human heart. Mr. Speaker, that was said by Martin Luther King. When I hear
people talking passionately about their thing, people talk about this road very passionately in our communities. I think people believe in this government, believe in the leaders around this table here, to make something like this a go. Where there is a way, there’s a will, I hear.
