Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the promotion.
Mr. Speaker, we've seen the news articles and we've seen the press releases that there's a change in ownership of Canadian North Airlines, no longer being owned by an Indigenous -- to Indigenous organizations, rather, but now a publicly-traded company. Mr. Speaker, we've yet to see what feffect that will have on the scheduled service, particularly up the Mackenzie Valley into Inuvik where, of course, I live, and it may, Mr. Speaker, invite competition, it may not, but we do know that currently the airport in Inuvik does not have security screening so if there was an appetite to have direct flights from Inuvik to other major airports in Western Canada, Mr. Speaker, we would need that infrastructure in there.
If I recall when the design for the new Inuvik airport building was completed -- and I know it's still on our capital plan, I believe, for 2027, there was space allocated, if I recall correctly, to have the security screening area put in the building, but I don't think there was a commitment to do it when the building was first built. And I think now, Mr. Speaker, given that there may be other opportunities in the aviation industry in that region, I'm hoping that we'll reconsider that design or certainly look at it again to ensure that we have screening services and security services in there. There's obviously other reasons why we would need that, certainly with -- you know, with the influx of drugs in the territory, certainly having airport security is always an advantage to that with dangerous things coming in and out. We also, as you know, just had our runway expanded so now we can actually accept larger aircraft, potentially international or certainly larger aircraft that can land there. So many reasons as we continue to move forward since the -- since we decided to put the new terminal building up there to maybe relook at that now and ensure that we do at least at the beginning -- and customs may come down the road, but have security and screening in that airport build when we initially build it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Members' statements. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
