Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is in regards to the JRP report. When I was the past mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, I was in full support of the pipeline on a go-forward basis. I am still a big proponent of the push that I would like to see this project go.

Mr. Chairman, people in the Beaufort-Delta right now need jobs. People are not working. There is nothing going on. You have almost highlight companies that are almost going under right now due to lack of work and the lack of the federal government. I wish they would put more to the all-weather road between Tuk and Inuvik to keep businesses both in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk working for the next couple of years prior to getting this pipeline inserted.

The biggest thing I think what we should be pushing through, as Mr. Krutko said earlier, that use it or lose it. Under the Inuvialuit, you have a certain amount of time to go drilling and then penalties will come into play. Ultimately, they will be taken or you lose your permitting and you pay a big fine. Something like that is a sort of thing that we should work towards and to try to make sure everybody is on the same page.

At the end of the day, we need this pipeline. The people in the Beaufort-Delta need the jobs. Disposal, like Mr. Krutko, the camps, people in camps catering, you know, transportation, everything is going to be going good for at least three to five years in regard to that, then we work with our neighbours to the west, Alaska, in regard to their pipeline and working with them to work on both sides of the border. You know, that was brought up and hopefully we can see that through with the Minister.

Gravel sources, yup, we have a lot of gravel in our riding, not only in Nunakput but right down the Delta. The studies have been done. The jobs, again, use of the classifications where possible and, like I said earlier, the Tuk/Inuvik highway.

Mr. Chair, people have to work. Again, like I said earlier in my Member’s statement, we know we have nothing going on. We have a building that’s being built in Inuvik, the school, and I’m pretty sure they have enough workers already, but you have the people that work in the oil and gas industry for the last 20 or 30 years and then Shell coming back and working out on the drill rig, the Mallik, probably about three years ago that stalled, but it was good to see. People don’t realize 30 years ago we had six or seven drill rigs working off the shores of Tuk and now the big thing with the secondary well, which I am in favour of, and it’s going to cost a little bit more for companies to come up and work, but so be it.

At the end of the day, I wish the government, pipeline and the offshore will come hand in hand and I wish our territorial government would tell the NEB yes, we want this project to go. We have graduates coming out of high school now that basically have nowhere to turn, not unless the post-secondary education, which is good, but after that’s done, you know, all the government jobs are all taken up in the communities if they want to go home and work. There are very limited good paying jobs. So we have to push the federal government in regard to this. It only took the JRP five years and hopefully, like I said the other day, we keep them on a timeline and on the push to go forward to make this project happen. That’s all I have to say. Thank you.