Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the Thanksgiving weekend I spent some time in Fort Providence with my father-in-law, and there we spent some time on the Mackenzie River. I thought about that the time I was there, when we put the net in and we caught some fish. I thought about the Mackenzie River in terms of the type of protection that the Mackenzie River is receiving now, the type of protection that it should receive if we are not protecting it.
I was looking at the Deh Cho Bridge. I’ve been on the Mackenzie River and the Sahtu. We have to use that portion of the Mackenzie River as a highway, because we do not yet have the highway to drive into our region. I thought about this with my little boy as we were on the Mackenzie River: what types of protection, at the end of the day, are we giving to the Mackenzie River in terms of the fuel spill that happened on the Mackenzie River?
The Mackenzie River is homeland to Inuvialuit, the Métis and the Dene people. It is rich in culture, rich in history. It has lots of animals: fish, caribou, lynx. We live off the land. Mr. Speaker, we do have a tool that is in front of us right now called the Protected Areas Strategy. This tool is to help us protect our land and water. At the end of the day that is going to sustain our life for generations to come, and I want to state that this area has been talked about by many elders in the past in terms of how we protect water and land.
We cannot drink oil; we cannot drink gas or money, but the water is the containment. The second tool that we have is called the NWT Water Resource Management Strategy. There is lots of pressure on our water system. It’s very sacred and very sensitive and very culturally rooted to our lives in the Mackenzie Valley.
I would have questions to the Minister of ENR in terms of how he proposes to protect the Mackenzie Valley. I would like our people in the Mackenzie Valley to be put first, before development, so we know that we could put this into our books of history — a thought that it is very good for our children. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
