Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the headwaters is the life and blood of our homeland in the Mackenzie River basin. Throughout the years, we have been forced to adjust to a confluence of industrial threats upstream from us, a toxic cocktail of deadly contaminants flowing past our camps, communities, and impacting our waters -- sorry, cocktails impacting our waters, lands and animals and the people. The health of the water and the land is connected to the well-being of our people. We face increased health problems from a rare disease and a climb in cancer rates throughout the North but, in particular, around the Big Lake in the riding of the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding. People are dying. We need answers to understand why this is happening.
Mr. Speaker, 45 years ago the entire globe was transfixed on us here in the North. That's when the cold war aired nuclear power Soviets by satellite fell out of the orbit and crashed in the Northwest Territories.
The story of the Cosmos 954 were something out of a science fiction story that fascinated the world by terrorizing our people. Cosmos 954 was a Soviet spy satellite designed to look for US nuclear power submarines in the ocean. The radar on board was the most powerful in the late 1970s. The powerful radar required a nuclear reactor for the satellite. The reactor contained over 100 pounds or 50 kilos of uranium 235. Scientists at the time estimated that it's a reactor containing the power of about a hundred thousand tonnes of TNT to fix into context. That's five times the force of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
On January 24th, 1978, Cosmos 954 and its nuclear reactor crashed over the frozen Great Slave Lake. The crash scattered an enormous amount of radioactive debris over 124,000 square kilometers; some large pieces but most peppercorn sized bits of radioactive black soot that rained down. Over the frozen land and lake, recovered pieces emitted a radiation level of 500 rad tonnes per hour, enough to kill a person in a few hours. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member's statement.
---Unanimous consent granted Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. For the first time in the North, a massive international military joint task force of United States and USA joined up. It's what they call a clean up and recovery. The extensive multi-year mission was called Operation Morning Light. After the crash, phase one of the operation was able to recover 12 large pieces, ten of them which is radioactive. As the operation continued, international tension was warned and was eventually nearly forgotten. The cleanup effort is estimated to only have recovered .01 percent of radioactive raining core. The rest melted in the water and lands when spring eventually turned into summer. The half of the enriched uranium 235 is 700 million years.
Mr. Speaker, the crash left this mark, and there is a strong concern that the source of the drastic spike in cancer around the lake in the early 1980s that continues to this date. 45 years later after the crash, there are still only questions. Over the decades, there is growing urgency for answers from the people and communities in my riding. We need answers. We want them.
Nearly two years before the crash of Cosmos 954, the country was focused on the North and typical work on the Berger Inquiry. It was the first time a government funded commission operated in that way. Listening to intently and truly, the Dene-Metis and Inuit people of the North. The report funded a northern frontier northern homeland changed the course of history. This type of work that needed to be done once again for the health of our lands and water, for the health of our communities and people, we need answers. We need government and the country to listen. We need them to care.
Mr. Speaker, that is why I'm calling for a public inquiry into the crash of Cosmos 954 but only to address the confluence of industrial threats flowing past us every day. This is a real concern about lasting health effects from the crash which may be the reasons for increased rates of cancer or other illness.
The people of Fort Resolution, Lutselk'e, Dettah, and N'dilo had been left to deal with the consequences of this incident for far too long without receiving any compensation, public apology, or support they deserve. Mr. Speaker, I'll have questions for the Premier at the appropriate time. Mahsi.
