The community of Deline certainly appreciates the opportunity to continue to work on that stretch of their highway. There’s nothing more than driving the highway in our regions and communities and seeing local contractors, local workers on our highway, working and improving the highway system. Stopping and talking to the operators, there’s pride in their face and voice when they talk about the work that they have for that winter or that week or that couple of months. Then them working on the roads and it goes twice as far when they see their family members driving. They know that their father or uncle or grandfather is driving on the road, so they take extra precaution and care on those winter roads. I want to thank you for continuing this type of leadership on our winter roads. The Sahtu certainly appreciates it.
I’m very concerned when we start seeing the number of trucks coming up from the South to supply the oil exploration projects in the Sahtu. I’m more concerned that once the Huskys of this world say, yes, we have a good product, we have to get it out, be it gas or oil that we’re hoping to have oil and we need to get on it right away because in the big oil and gas industry, time is money and they want to make money, but they want to see that the territorial government will be there to help them out. They are building a 35-kilomtre road because they want to have at least nine months of product and work. They don’t like this three months. It’s costing them too much. So that’s what I’m hoping the Minister would prepare a strategy in the Sahtu, even through a special economic discussion paper, to get the attention of the federal government.
I want to ask the Minister if he has considered putting together a northern highway or transportation strategy for the northern communities, communities that do not have the luxury of getting in your vehicle and driving to another community to do shopping or go to work. There are a lot of communities that do not have that type of luxury right now. We’re hoping that the federal government will step up to the plate. Is there a strategy such as Colville Lake or Deline or Fort Good Hope can see some infrastructure?
You have some communities in the Northwest Territories that have roads. Nahanni Butte has a road. Jean Marie River has a road. We have real small communities that have roads into their town, which is really good. We’d like the same opportunity in the Sahtu or any other communities that don’t have it.
We always rely on the airplanes or the marine. We want to see some strategy. We want to see some action from this government that says we can put a road in here, let’s do it. Look at that paved road in other areas are fixed up. We need to look at the small communities and say, yes, we can put a road into Colville Lake or to Fort Good Hope or Norman Wells or Tulita. We have roads. We’ve done it before. That’s what I’m looking for.