Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thomas Edison once observed that the reason most folks don’t recognize opportunity when it comes along is that it is often dressed in coveralls and it looks like work.
Opportunities in the Sahtu and opportunities in the Northwest Territories involve a great amount of work and the willingness to take a chance on something. We are told we take hold of opportunities and know the outcome, which may be uncertain. There has been a lot of media awareness, protests and discussion in the North about the Sahtu’s oil play and, more importantly, the use of the technology hydraulic fracking. I want to say let us not fear this technology but to embrace this opportunity.
The Sahtu wants to shed its shackles of poverty. We have a high rate of unemployment in our communities. We have families who need our support so they can work. Sahtu people are well aware of the risk of this technology. We are no different than the great minds of men who put people in space. We’re no different from the great people like Thomas Edison or Helen Keller. We must show, in light of the uncertainties and failures, that we stand to show courage so that our children will know success and non-success, but they will know, and they will see that success does not come very easy in the Sahtu or to people in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
