Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Good morning to you, and congratulations on the quality of your French.
Good morning also to all my colleagues.
To the witnesses, welcome to your House of Commons, madam, gentlemen.
The issue before us today is very important. It deals specifically with who we are as Canadians. Canada is a vast northern country. We have the responsibility, each and every one of us, to establish a presence on the territory. Having airports in Canada’s north is essential for the country’s unity, strength, and, I would say, its very being.
If we neglect the airports in the communities in Canada’s north, we are neglecting our country, pure and simple. Occupying territory provides evidence of sovereignty and prerogative. The airports must be preserved, as tools of our development and our presence. We must make sure that the infrastructures are established, and that they are strong and safe.
Nevertheless, we have seen that the Auditor General has some quite serious criticisms. But we applaud the fact that the Department of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities is welcoming his recommendations.
Earlier, Mr. Lefebvre brought up a very interesting point about ownership: the locations of our 117 airports in the far north are in indigenous territory. That is exactly the subject I wanted to deal with. My thanks to him for doing so. Let us continue along the same lines.
Mr. Keenan, you said that a major challenge we will have to face when the time comes to make significant investment in our airports in remote locations is the collaboration between the federal government, the provincial and territorial authorities, and the local communities.
In your experience, do you feel any resistance on the part of any local communities to make the investments and the efforts needed to ensure the quality, the safety and the longevity of our facilities in the far north? We are all aware that we are talking about millions of dollars, which is not an insignificant amount.