Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s another session, so I need to bring up the other big issue in Hay River: dredging.
For three and a half years, I have been the MLA for Hay River North, and every session I’ve opened up talking about dredging. I am concerned this is going to create an economic shutdown of Hay River. We are the hub of the Northwest Territories. Because of the drought situation, we are seeing levels right now, in May, levels that are in September or August. That water level is down two feet. We have shipping issues; we have the Canadian Coast Guard having difficulty getting their boat out of the dry dock because the water is so low that the lift at NTCL won’t even allow it. They are having to jimmy rig it.
I continue to get from this government that it’s a federal responsibility, and I sure hope the federal government is listening to our proceedings because the federal government needs to step up and give us the money. We as a territorial government need to start working on figuring out a plan, a way to get the federal government involved. The federal government has been giving millions of dollars here and there. Why can’t they give us some on the dredging?
I’d like to thank the Regular Members on this side, because we’ve made some progress. We’ve written letters to our Minister of Transportation. He’s written letters to the federal Minister of Transportation and still no answer from the federal government. Very shameful.
We need to get this situation resolved. We need our government to step up. They’ve done some calculations, and now we need to call on the federal government and all interested parties to have a meeting.
I would suggest to the Minister of Transportation that we have a meeting in Hay River this summer to deal with dredging in the Hay River and the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
