Thank you.
You know, I think the first thing that I'd like to speak about, just to show you how different we are from the rest of the country, is that we have to participate by phone, because our Internet is not fast enough. It's being worked on. There is a project being worked on by the federal government.
We are Quebec's forgotten people, on the lower north shore. It's the last frontier. We are working together right now, from Tadoussac to Blanc-Sablon, with southern Labrador, western Labrador and, as of now, part of the west coast of Newfoundland, to complete the 138 and the tunnel across the Strait of Belle Isle, finally hooking up our country from one end to the other.
We have villages on this part of the coast that can see each other, such as Saint-Augustin, Quebec, and on the west side, Pakuashipi. They are less than a kilometre apart and it's a world apart. They don't have access. Mother Nature and climate change have hit us full force. Where it was normal to get a storm 20 years ago that had winds from 60 to 80 kilometres an hour, as we speak, storms are now from 80 to 110, sometimes even to 120. That is unheard of. When the sun goes down in the evening, we are at the mercy of Mother Nature.
People are prisoners in their own communities. The cost to travel by plane is astronomical. The community I represent, Gros-Mecatina, has a small airstrip that was put there by the provincial government. Every year, a doctor comes in to Blanc-Sablon, and they do tests on the ladies for breast cancer, and so on. They took 18 women from my community and went to Blanc-Sablon a few years ago, and on the way back, when they landed, it was nearly a disaster. They nearly went over the end of the runway. The person who did the investigation for Transport Canada told me that this was one of the three most dangerous airports in eastern Canada. I asked him what number we represented and he wouldn't say.
The road, Route 138, and bridges would allow Saint-Augustin, less than a kilometre away, to have access to the airport and the federal wharf. They're on one side of the river, and the wharf and airport are on the other side. That bridge is a must. That's two communities that would be connected. The same is true for the road between other villages. We're in 2019, and most people on this coast have not been able to see the inside of another community in summertime. The only time they get to travel is in the winter, by snowmobile.
The 138 and the tunnel are a must if we're going to preserve our way of life, our culture and our heritage. We've seen communities close. I went to school in Musquaro. That village doesn't exist anymore. Wolf Bay is another village that's been closed. Aylmer Sound is another village that has closed. Lac Sally has closed. Baie de la Terre has closed. The list goes on, but if we had access by road, those communities would still have their necessity. Our economy is the fishery. As it stands right now, we don't have access. We could fish different species and species that don't pay so much, but if you added a truck that could truck it from, say, Kegaska to La Tabatière, that would be another option for people.