Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A storm hit the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu regions last week for five days, with winds over 100 kilometres an hour. At one point the James Creek, where the NorthwesTel tower was disrupted knocking out all telecommunications in that service, was clocked at over 160 kilometres an hour. This was one of the most fierce storms that we’ve had for some time, in which it knocked out the telecommunication systems and Internet systems, not being able to access the Internet and banking services. It completely shut off our communities by way of road closures, airport closures, and not even able to provide municipal services because of the ferocity of the weather.
We also realized that we had power outages and fluctuations of power and freeze-ups of municipal services and individuals’ homes. I think we also have to realize that from that, communities are shovelling themselves out of their homes, municipalities, and the Department of Transportation is getting the roads open and services are now getting back in operation. Also the Internet and telecommunications are up and running.
I think this is a real eye-opener for people not only in the Mackenzie Delta, Beaufort Sea and Sahtu, but the rest of the Northwest Territories. Facing the reality of climate change and the weather patterns that we see in the world, we are not immune to what’s going on around us or even in what we’re seeing in major shifts in weather, wind storms are increasing, and as a government and Legislature and for the people of the Northwest Territories, realizing we have to adapt in some manner or some way, realizing there’s a cost associated with all these storms and the effect it will have on the fiscal climate in the Northwest Territories by way of adaptation to climate change and facing the reality that our world is changing.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
