Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, repairs are required to maintain one of the main roads in Aklavik. The biggest road is falling apart due to riverbank erosion. Funding is the main thing needed. Some work has been done in the past, but more is needed.
Mr. Speaker, this community road is important not just to residents, but to the Northwest Territories. In 1912, the Pokiak and Greenland families founded the small community around a remote Hudson's Bay trading post on a bend in the Mackenzie River.
With the increase in the price of furs around the turn of the last century, small Hudson's Bay Company posts were springing up across our vast region, establishing many of the communities that many of our residents call home today.
Mr. Speaker, within 10 years of being established, Aklavik had an Anglican church, an Anglican mission, and became the Western Arctic headquarters for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Air mail service arrived in 1929, when the famous Punch Dickins landed an airplane in Aklavik for the first time. In the early 1930s, the Mad Trapper, Albert Johnson, put Aklavik on the map in one of the most famous manhunts in Canadian history. The Mad Trapper's grave is prominently marked in the Aklavik cemetery and continues to attract significant interest to this day.
Mr. Speaker, at one time this busy little community had two hospitals, a Roman Catholic mission, a Royal Canadian Signal Corp station, and a small experimental farm that produced wheat, barley, and vegetables. It even had a small dairy herd.
Mr. Speaker, Aklavik has always had trouble with flooding and erosion. In 1953, the Government of Canada recommended moving the entire population of 1,600 people east to Inuvik. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. By 1960, most of the people had gone, but some remained true to the community's motto: "Never say die." Mr. Speaker, once again, repairs are needed to build up areas of shoreline erosion that is threatening one of the main roads in Aklavik.
Mr. Speaker, we may ask: Is it worth it? When we consider all the things Aklavik has done for the NWT and for the Delta and all the things Aklavik is today, it makes sense to repair Bickish Road in the community.
Is it worth it, Mr. Speaker? Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister of MACA later today. Thank you.
Masi. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.
