Thanks, Gary. It's good to see you.
With climate change, our ice road season is getting shorter. Like I said earlier, before this meeting, we're still missing two people who are presumed drowned after just trying to get across the lake. Three people drowned back in November. Also, a teacher went through the ice and the vehicle landed on the floating ice just under the water. There have been a lot of tragedies of people being lost just trying to get into the community.
With climate change, it's getting harder. We've been advocating to get that road built. Back in about 2012 we had the perfect storm. We had the fire surrounding the community, our airport wasn't operating, and you couldn't land planes because the fire was close to the community. We ended up getting helicopters to move people out of the community into Points North. We had a Hercules land in Points North, and we had to evacuate that way.
It's very important to have access. We had some commitment to get the road built and finished, but very little support. We're halfway done, but we need ongoing support to get the road finished. We're not asking for much. We're in the backyard of the biggest uranium deposits in northern Saskatchewan, and there's no reason we should continue to not have that road built.
For the last 30 or 40 years we've been advocating to get that road built. Why is it so hard? We're halfway there. The equipment is there. Why can't we continue to work on it this summer? That's what we've been saying to the ministers. We still haven't heard. Last week, they were supposed to meet with Minister Fox. We haven't heard back, or it's always, “Maybe, maybe.” There are millions of dollars coming out of our backyard, and we can't get this road finished. That's where we are.
We're always on top of it. With the Grand Council, I was there with our Red Cross and our Saskatchewan First Nations Emergency Management. We're on top of it, and we continue to provide that support for our communities. We've done it so many times that I feel like we're the experts in dealing with emergency management.
Thank you.