The Minister is very accurate in regard to the potential in the Sahtu and the Canol Trail play of the exploration of talking to people who have worked or are working in those areas, the oil companies, the Minister himself has talked to some pretty well-informed people who are looking at the Canol Trail play, and I think we started to realize that the potential that he’s saying.
My point is that I appreciate it on behalf of the Sahtu for the readiness session, because that was very timely. That talks about leadership from the department, we look forward to those types of discussions and more concrete in terms of big picture and all the different fronts that we have to look at. We continue to support. That’s what the Sahtu is meeting right now, actually tomorrow, they’re going to Deline. They’re all going to go over there tomorrow and they’re going to have a look at these other issues here. They’re going to be talking amongst themselves as to the impacts that are happening right now in the Sahtu.
I’m going to ask the Minister from here on in as to whether we start to coordinate in some of these
activities that are happening in our region. The whole Northwest Territories is going to benefit greatly on this, and if we do it properly, do it right, we can do well. We just need coordinating efforts from our land claims, our Minister, to other organizations.
I think I want to leave it at that. I do thank the Minister for responding to me in a timely manner to some of the issues I had to look at in the Sahtu region. I will talk more about the Department of Transportation with my colleague Mr. Menicoche on the…(inaudible)…that happened in our region. It just happened. The oil companies wait with the material at Wrigley and it cost them tens of thousands of dollars. We have to look at some of those things that are going to improve the safety but also ensure that we’re prepared from ITI and DOT. So those are the things that are challenging.
I think that we are up for the challenge for ensuring that next year we could greatly improve our transportation, because we have industry just begging to get into the region and do their work. We have a lot of workers from Gwich’in down in that area and I met them in Norman Wells. When I met those ladies at the restaurant, they were smiling. They were happy they were working. That’s what we want to see: people working. But we also have some good questions on the concerns of the environment, so we have to be careful.
I look forward to some more good information on this area here, because I have a lot of hope for the North and for the people. I think just like the diamond mines on this side of the territory, we have the Sahtu oil and gas exploration happening and we can benefit.
Those are my questions for the Minister on this front here. Thank you.