Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for your latitude in extending me some time to conclude my Member's statement. And thank you to all my colleagues as well.
Mr. Speaker, whenever I go back into my riding in Lutselk'e or Fort Resolution, they keep talking about Cosmos 954 and the impacts and the cumulative impacts as well. And that happened in 1978. And I know bringing this up now, but I didn't give enough time to the Premier, and I do apologize about that as well. But I just wanted to see if there's a way we could work with this government and Government of Canada to start bringing this issue out and really take a look as to how we could work together and call for a public inquiry. My question to the Premier. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm trying to figure out the question in that. I think there might be a couple in that one.
I do thank the Member. I do kind of wish he would have given me a heads up because I was trying to rush and read what the Cosmos 954 was. It was in 1970 something '78. I was 18 years old. I wasn't looking at what the sky was doing in all honesty. But I do think that I would be more than willing to actually sit down with the Member and actually find out more about this because I'm not sure if it's a public inquiry, what work has been done, what's out there. So more than willing to sit down with the Member and get more educated on this Cosmos 954 and the results after. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When I go back into the communities, like we got a lot of community members and elders talk about that there is still probably a large uranium that's probably in the water and they're concerned about that. That's also on the land. So that affects the fish and the aquatic life and birds and everything else. So I look forward to work with the Premier on this. But this is going back to 1978. Giant Mine, you know, it happened in 1946, 56 years later it closed, and we had a public inquiry, a public inquiry which essentially is like an environmental assessment hearing. And I was the chairman. I chaired that. To clean up that mine now we're looking at about $1.4 billion. So I'm just saying on Cosmos 954, there's got to be a way to work with Government of Canada and ask for a public inquiry. So, yes, I look forward to working with the Premier but at the same time we need your help to bring this out in the open because this is significant. We got trappers that go out into the land and they make tea in the wintertime; they add snow and they make tea and then they drink the water that came from the snow. A year later they died. So I'm asking you for your help to bring this out and to work with the Government of Canada to ask for a public inquiry on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think this is a good example. Like I said, I'm just learning about it, but it's an example of many things that have happened in the Northwest Territories. There's been, you know, either there's been mines, like you used the example Giant Mine. There's been uranium mines in the Northwest Territories. One of the mines my father worked at and died of cancer, but he was also a smoker so I can't trace if that was smoking or if it was working in the uranium mine. But many people in the Northwest Territories have examples of cancer that have impacted us because of we're not sure what. So, and that's why we're so tough on the way we monitor our land and water and why we work with Indigenous governments to make sure that it's clear.
But what I can commit to I can't commit to a public inquiry yet because I need to find out what happened after this. Once I find out what happened, I'll get back to the Member and look at how we can move this forward and to see what responsibilities we can talk to Canada about. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Premier, for your response. Normally at the end of a public inquiry, through that process we also could look at, you know, compensation and also a public apology. So that's kind of what I'm hearing from the community, from the chief and council in Lutselk'e, and they brought that to my attention. So in our dialogue, I guess as we bring this out and look at it and how we're going to approach it, that's also something that the people are looking for. So just so the Premier knows about that so maybe if she could just add a comment to that as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Taken as a comment. Madam Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't speak for the federal government, but I do believe in my heart that the federal government is talking about reconciliation and trying to figure out what that looks like. So, again, I'll look into what's happened with this, but I can't commit that the federal government would do a public apology. I'm just hopeful, I know they're listening that actually they will consider that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Premier. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
