Mr. Speaker, due to the increase of activity now in the Sahtu, when you have a record-breaking number of parcels being taken up by the major oil companies of the world and spending over $600 million, close to $700 million, you know there is something happening very big. Even if the Fraser Institute report comes out saying that it’s not very good to have investments in the Sahtu, and the next day you have a company come and say we’re going to spend over $700 million in the development of the Sahtu oil and gas exploration, you know that when Husky Energy puts in a $45 million road out in nowhere, putting in two big camps, you know there’s something big there. A company does not throw out $45 million. It’s like us coming around this table and arguing for $45 million of road of where infrastructure should go. They know there’s a potential there. When a company this winter spends $75 million going into the Sahtu communities, going into the Sahtu region, you know there’s something there and they’re going to develop it.

So, I’m saying that put it in the planning study and look at it. We need to have a serious look at the trades. It shows here in the trades of how many millions of dollars, $350 million going out of the Northwest Territories because of the lack of tradespeople in the North here. That says something.

Sahtu needs to have a training institute. Look at it. Look at the planning study so that the oil companies and us and the Aboriginal governments say yes, we can start the planning process and see where we can get the funding.

This is serious stuff here. We’re talking about looking at the Sahtu and looking at how we can get the students and the people ready. That’s what I’m asking for through this motion. The oil companies and that are saying if the resources are proven up from exploration wells, using the technology of hydraulic fracking, we could be there for 30 years or longer. That is real. That is real.

We have a training institute here in Yellowknife and the NWT Mining Society and they’re producing some pretty good, skilled workers and we’re supporting them. We’re supporting them. It’s no different than asking for our people in the Sahtu to support us through a planning study. Look at it. If there are other regions, yes, we’ll do that too, if that’s what they’re looking for.

But today the action is in Yellowknife for the diamond mines and in the Sahtu for the oil and gas exploration. That’s where the action is. We have to look at that. That’s what we’re saying in the Sahtu. We appreciate what the government has done to respond to the needs of the Sahtu, because we’re asking for help. The Sahtu has said yes. In spite of all the controversy of fracking and environmental, they said yes. We will bring in $75 million this year, this winter, into the economy of the Northwest Territories. We brought in over $100 million last year. All through these years, we’re going to bring in over $600 million into the Sahtu, into the Northwest Territories, and say we need some help. We have seen workers coming off the planes. We don’t know where they’re from. They’re from the South and they’re working on our gas and oilfields because the oil companies say we don’t have the trades, we don’t have the expertise, the specialists. But we’re saying okay, let’s do something about it.

I’m asking through this motion to seriously look at this and help the people in the Sahtu and all the five communities, even the people of the Northwest Territories. There’s more than enough work there for the people in the Sahtu. That’s what I’m asking through this motion. In their goodness of heart and the criteria, I know it’s right here in the capital planning study I’m looking at, and give some consideration to what’s happening in the Sahtu. They’ll get a sense of what’s coming down the tube in our region. We’re asking, the goodness at the

heart of this motion is to look at a planning study for a regional institute. That’s what we want.

I thank the Members for hearing me out and rising to the floor. Mahsi.