Thank you, Mr. Blake. This is, you know, MTS is, a big deal in Hay River. It's a big deal in my constituency. A lot of people were glad when the government came in and purchased MTS. I don't think anyone saw it as the government was coming in to save Hay River. The government was coming in to save themselves because they require MTS to deliver fuel.
I was up at the all-candidates forum. I sat onstage with Minister Schumann and I said, "The government shouldn't be in the business of business" and lo and behold, a couple of years later, we are running a shipping company. You know, it's not easy, and government isn't made to run these types of organizations. You have to be responsive. You have to be nimble. Those are two things that the government isn't known for.
I think that this exemplifies the need to move towards a different type of governance model, something similar to the power corporation, a cost-recovery model where you can attract the right type of people to do the work, people who have history in the shipping industry.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about, you know, shipping out of somewhere else. The Minister has pointed out many times that a lot of fuel comes through Hay River. When I look out my window, I can see the tank farm where the fuel is delivered to, and I see trains day and night sometimes, you know, for the entire summer, coming through. There is an amazing amount of fuel, and you couldn't even imagine how many trucks would be required to ship that up and down the highway. I would like to see the numbers. I would like to see the Minister come up with these numbers. I think they would probably be extraordinary, to see how expensive it is to ship it via truck.
Like I said, I think that we need to seriously look at moving towards a different type of governance model and not, you know, a few years down the road we'll start thinking about it. I think we need to look at it now and see how quickly we can move towards it. We need a long-term plan and we need a short-term plan of how we are going to start getting there.
There are a lot of small things. There was the sailing schedule, I think, went out to consumers in May. It usually goes out in November. Right there, that's a small example of something that was six months behind, right off the bat. I think that's indicative of a lot of the other small issues. Well, you know, we do have a lot of the right people in Hay River to run this as it is. We bring a lot up, and the marine training centre is addressing that, but we have a lot of personnel in Hay River. I think that they need to be able to work in an environment that, like I said, is responsive and nimble.
One of the other issues, too, with when you discuss, you know, maybe shipping out of somewhere else and maybe moving to somewhere is the fact that there are the personnel in Hay River who have been doing this for years, you know. It's not just the physical infrastructure, but it's also the people.
Those are just a few things I wanted to point out, both for the Minister and for, you know, the public because there's been a lot of talk of maybe we need to ship out from somewhere else, but, you know, there's a reason that Hay River exists as it does, and it's because of, you know, mostly because of commercial shipping and commercial fishing. It is the port of the North for a reason. I just wanted to point that out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.