Debates of May 14, 2007 (day 6)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the weekend, I was thinking about the discussion that Members had last week in terms of the Deh Cho Bridge. Also, there were some discussions about the roads in the southern part of the Northwest Territories. I made several calls to the people in the Sahtu. They were quite concerned as to not hearing any announcements from this government in terms of how to improve the winter road into the Sahtu region, especially questions around what was happening with the Bear River Bridge around Tulita hooking up to Norman Wells here.

Mr. Speaker, the people in the Sahtu have to pay the high cost of living. When the winter roads are open, they are only open for a few months. If we are very lucky and climate changes, it will shorten the winter months in terms of the people in the Sahtu getting out to do their shopping either in Fort Simpson, Hay River or Yellowknife here, or even in Edmonton; also for the people to take their families out on a vacation. As you know, taking families out flying is very expensive, so families that plan around that time can take their children out to the southern parts to have some vacation.

Mr. Speaker, the people in the Sahtu want to know when will this government make some announcements in their region to fix up the road. I was driving the road there for a couple of seasons now. When I drive the winter road, it has greatly improved, but we certainly need more work to get done on it. More safety measures should be taken to provide that for the people. Mr. Speaker, our region has been heavily into oil and gas exploration coming in and having a lot of interest in using our roads. More and more businesses are taking opportunities to use our winter roads. People in the Sahtu really want to know when this government is going to make any type of decision on the Mackenzie Valley highway. Is it just going to at least fix our roads here? Keep us in the light here and not shut us out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause