Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to say on behalf of the people in Tulita and people in the Sahtu that we want to say how appreciative we are to Minister Miltenberger in terms of the removal of the contaminated site in Tulita. Mr. Speaker, when I became the MLA in the Sahtu, I was driving around with some people in the community and then, at one point in my travels, I worked with my uncle Gordon who looked at the contaminated soil in Tulita. When my uncle and I went to that site close to the airport, he looked at it and was talking about it. Tears were running down his eyes. I said, how come? What is going on? He said, this contaminated soil was in our yard from our grandfather who raised us as children. I remember playing in that yard when I was young, not knowing that this site was being contaminated with uranium. When my uncle was talking and he was crying, he said, every time I come by this site, it brings me hard times in terms of what this site reminds me of. My grandfather died of cancer. I’m not sure if it is related to the contaminated site. Also, my uncle’s, one of his youngest sons died of cancer. I’m not too sure if that is related to the contaminated site. My grandmother also had cancer. I wasn’t too sure if it was related to the contaminated site. My uncle fought hard to see if something would get done to remove the contaminated site. Through last year, witnessing and having him haul the last piece of the contaminated package onto the barge was a significant joy for him.
Mr. Speaker, there are other sites in the Sahtu that haven’t been looked at right now. There are other departments within the federal government that contaminated our land in the Sahtu that needs to be looked at. I am going to ask questions to the Minister in terms of how he is working with the government and the Government of Canada to clean up their mess in the Sahtu and also in the Northwest Territories that, for once, we know that government is listening to people. However, it takes a little time, but on behalf of the people of Tulita and Sahtu, I want to thank the Minister and from my family also for doing something right in terms of cleaning up the government’s mess. Thank you.