Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Sahtu we have always known there would be another oil strike, a big boom. The only question was when. Now we believe that the time is here. Unprecedented, record-setting, record breaking amounts of money is being spent in the Sahtu, and is being committed in the Sahtu has begun. Now it is our time. Over the last two seasons we have seen work ramping up. All you need to know is the recent traffic jam we had on our winter roads, and the number of people working and all the activity that’s been happening in the Sahtu.
While this has brought a lot of benefits to the region, it is also taxing our capacity. We are feeling it. We need major investment in human resource development and infrastructure. We need to look at the Voisey’s Bay model and develop a Canol Sahtu model. The Sahtu region is of natural interest. We have a major play. It’s time to wake up, Canada. We may be talking billions of barrels of oil in those hills. Now is the time for this federal government to step in and help, as they did a few years ago with the Voisey’s Bay region of Labrador with the human resource and development funding.
We’re also in desperate need of an all-weather road, because it just makes more sense more than ever. Earlier this year we saw how the winter road between Wrigley and Tulita could not stand up to the heavy traffic bringing in supplies and materials. It was like the Wild West with the semi-trucks heading into the land of prosperity.
These investments are far beyond the GNWT’s ability, but we are the national interest and it will be paid back many times over in jobs and economic growth. This is the perfect opportunity for the federal government to reinvest some of the profits they have gained over the last few decades of their ownership in the Norman Wells pipeline and the Norman Wells field in order to create even more prosperity for the people in the Northwest Territories.
I would urge this government, if it hasn’t already done so, to make a strong case to Canada for human resource development and infrastructure investment in the Sahtu so that we can see the tremendous potential for jobs and growth in this region realized. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
