Sure. Thanks very much for the opportunity.
We look at it from a northern perspective. It's hard for a lot of southern Canadians if they've never been north. If somebody was born in southern Canada and moved north, it's a mind shift to understand the scope of our landscape in the north.
Taking it back, the last major infrastructure investments in the north were in the 1950s and 1960s, when the federal government was investing heavily in northern infrastructure. That's what we need to see again.
We look at the defence industrial strategy and what that could be. Mr. Van Dine talked about how we are a strategic location. We already have JTFN—Joint Task Force North—headquartered in Yellowknife. We have a strong connection with the military. Many Yellowknifers are members of the military or have family in the military.
When we look at the infrastructure needs of the north from a community perspective and look at the dual use aspect, we see that the Mackenzie Valley Highway is one piece of infrastructure that's been talked about for decades. We have the Arctic economic and security corridor, which is its modern name. It often used to be called the Slave Geological Province Corridor because the critical minerals in our territory are found in that region in vast quantities. One of the challenges of accessing those minerals is a lack of infrastructure, and that also leads to potential opportunities to link in communities that would be along that road.
When we look at look at the diamond mining industry, we see that it is on a planned wind-down at this time, as Mr. Van Dine was noting. Significant populations working in those diamond mines will be looking for new employment opportunities. These are skilled individuals who have the ability to build Canada. These diamond mining companies also have infrastructure that they're leaving behind and looking to divest, and that's an opportunity along the Arctic economic and security corridor: There's potential for the Government of Canada to work with those companies on transferring assets that could be of use to the government from a security standpoint in the Arctic region.
Ultimately, I think it's important to understand that while things can be dual use in southern Canada, often, as I've mentioned, northern infrastructure can be of triple, quadruple or often quintuple use. There are always multiple ways of using infrastructure in the north from a community aspect, from use in mitigation and adaptation to use in environment and climate change to the military purposes that we're discussing here.
Yellowknife has a beautiful, cold climate, in my opinion, and that really does lend itself to cold-weather testing and consistency that is not always available in other places and combined with a city. In Yellowknife, we have the highest disposable incomes in the country and a very educated population that's ready to serve our country in different ways, but we need the investments to make that happen. As a northerner, it's good to see that the government is turning its eyes our way.