Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wanted to highlight just a couple of perspectives in terms of thoughts on the Infrastructure Acquisition Plan for this year.
The riding that I represent, of course, is four communities, and mostly small communities that are situated in the southern NWT. We realize that, people who come up here by vehicle during their summer holidays, we are the first communities that they see and visit. At the same time, when people travel up here, we are the first government infrastructure that they see.
It is very important that the government ensures that the facilities and infrastructures that we house for people that come up here is very professional and, at the same time, well-kept. That is including the highways, of course, and ensuring that the infrastructure for tourism is good in a way that people want to come back. Those are a few futures that I think the riding that I represent prides itself in.
That is not to say that we are really reliant on capital projects for four communities. At this point in the NWT, we do not see any large industrial natural resource development projects such as what north of Yellowknife enjoys. For those purposes, infrastructure projects like roads, housing, building schools, come at a time of need when those are allocated and determined in communities' plans within perhaps maybe one or two years. That brings a lot of employment opportunities and business spinoffs to our small little communities that sometimes are sidelined for larger regional centres.
We rely on, of course, government services not only to upkeep our communities, but at the same time ensuring that vital information is flowing and there is communication back and forth. We understand that, in this exercise, in terms of coming up with the capital plan for this year, there has to be a level of expectation of cooperation between the local government bodies plus departments. For example, tourism: we need to ensure that there's a consistent exchange of information between a host community, like a small community with perhaps IT or ITI, in terms of ensuring that we have proper tourism facilities operating.
On that point, we seem to accept the reality that our tourism season is from May to maybe the end of August and then all of the campgrounds are closed. There is still the expectation from the travelling public, especially from southern Canada, that want to come up here during the off-season, but they do not have anywhere to stay in terms of parks. On that same matter, too, we have some world-class potential sites for fishing or other outdoor activities that we could build upon, but perhaps there is just maybe the thinking that it cannot be done. Maybe some people in communities are interested in maybe trying to build upon that. I think governments should be able to listen and try to work with those communities.
The other point that I wanted to make is that I think the last major capital project that we saw in our riding was the building of the Fort Providence health centre, and that was about two years ago. We have not really seen any major infrastructure for the riding, and again, I encourage this government and local leaders to try to come together to ensure that projects such as the building of the health centre or else maybe a community hall in Kakisa comes in a timely manner so that people will benefit from the employment and business opportunities that could arise from it.
Another point that I wanted to highlight is, and I think my colleague had expressed the idea for our reliance on infrastructure projects, including highways, we have to remind ourselves that, with the dawn of the completion of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway, there is still a real need for the Mackenzie Valley highway. It is a given that it will probably open the doors for maybe at some point eventually, if the petroleum industry picks up again, that at least that baseline infrastructure is there. Industry could travel up and down the Mackenzie Valley if there is a highway, and we need to prepare for that eventuality. We cannot dismiss the idea of a Mackenzie Valley highway. More than any other time in the history of the NWT, I think it is needed.
Those are just some comments that I wanted to highlight, and I look forward to the detailed discussions that will happen at a later time. Mahsi.