Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today is about the historic structure that vanished from Yellowknife's skyline on Saturday, the Robertson headframe. As the Minister of ITI alluded to just moments ago, mining has had a defining role in the North we live in today. There's no doubting the impact mining has had on our people, our landscape and our economy. Some may say it was negative, others will say it's the very reason they're here.
Regardless of your view, it was represented by that big monolith on the shore. Until it was gone! Two gold mines, Giant and Con, built the City of Yellowknife. People came here from the world over for the work. Generations of families were drawn here. Many stayed, finding the security of the job, along with a community they called home. For myself, mining brought my father here, an Irish immigrant, in the late 60's. He worked underground at Giant for a few years. As a younger man I worked at Con, in the shadow of the Robertson headframe, as an operator in the mill, the autoclave and the water treatment plant.
I was at Con during some of Yellowknife's darkest days, the Giant Mine strike in the early 90's. While mining had brought the community together, the strike drove a stake into the heart of this city. It was a very difficult time, and Yellowknife has never been the same since. In fact I believe the physical scar left by Giant today is in many ways symbolic of the emotional scar many Yellowknifers still feel from those sad days. Now Giant and Con are closed, and the mining community has refocused primarily on diamonds. And thankfully it seems that we've learned to manage the environmental impacts, as well as the social effects, better than we once did.
Gold may yet have a place, as the Terra-X project just north of the City is working the far end of the same gold belt. Northerners may yet be gold miners again someday, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Robertson Headframe meant different things to different people, some bad, some indifferent, but mostly good. Judging by the number of pictures on social media, we know one thing for sure: as a Yellowknife landmark and a significant piece of mining history, it will never be forgotten.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.