Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for her comments. Mr. Chair, at this time I'd like to move that consideration of Tabled Document 275 -- sorry?

Thank you for that. I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker. So it's my assumption, then -- and I know one shouldn't assume -- that the majority of the goods and services that are going to be transported into the coastal communities and the Inuvialuit settlement region will, indeed, look to be transported via truck to Inuvik and/or Tuk for those hubs to get that product into the coastal communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement, my first question for the Minister of Infrastructure is around the sailing dates and, importantly, has the department now, given the analysis of what happened last year, are they looking at sailing dates and, as importantly, communicating those dates out to the residents of the communities that will be ordering the goods and services for the barge? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Premier. I appreciate that, and I know the Premier's live to this, and I know he knows that I get plenty of e-mails and telephone calls from my community on this as military, again, as I've stated before, is important to my community, to my region.

So, you know, the Premier's people and the people in Inuvik, everyone is aware and everyone is speaking to each other, I guess if the Premier is planning to send a delegation or heading to the -- I noted in my statement there's meetings at the end of May between Joint Task Force North, the Department of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about Arctic security again today and, specifically, around the Arctic security council. Certainly the leadership in my community are very live to the issue of Arctic security given that we have infrastructure there, the forward operating location as well as the NORAD office in Inuvik.

Mr. Speaker, the federal department of defence announcement on March 10th identified Inuvik and Yellowknife as military hubs which will share in a $2.6 billion investment with Iqaluit. Given the recent article on Cabin Radio, Mr. Speaker, there may be some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just hope the Premier will use his significant influence in that situation.

I also mentioned that there's a conference taking place in the Yukon this month called Conference Zero which is their Arctic security council have set up through funding through CanNor. Will the Premier or anyone from his office be attending that conference? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following up on my Member's statement, the town of Inuvik, Mr. Speaker, is well aware of what military spending looks like in the community. Pre-1986, there was 140 to 250 military personnel there as well as their families, which made up about 800, which were school kids that integrated into the community and teachers and nurses and that was the model -- the preferred model at the time. A lot of the leadership, Mr. Speaker, are still there. They lived through that time. So when the Premier talks about setting up an advisory council, or as my colleague from Yellowknife...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move the chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And that sounds like something for a Member's statement next week, but I certainly appreciate the answers. No further questions in this section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yeah, the issue has been -- and, listen, I've been involved with BIP through other parts of my career and, again, we see a lot of times where, you know, a contractor or someone will fill out those forms, put in the northern content, and then not necessarily follow up on the northern content and the problem was, you know, if you wait until you're halfway through a $20 million contract to realize that, you know, we haven't, you know -- those intentions weren't followed, then it's likely too late. So one of the -- you know, it'll cost you way more to have to go out and...