Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to follow up on a very exciting issue that I first raised in the House last month: the Alaska to Alberta railway.
I was glad to see in the news last month the announcement by the Alaska - Alberta Railway Development Corporation that it had secured the necessary American permit to move that project forward. This railway will be tremendously beneficial to Canadians for a number of reasons. First, the costs of this railway are all being paid for by the private sector. The Alaska - Alberta Railway Development Corporation is a private-sector business that is willing to put up $17 billion of investors' money to move that project forward. The only ask of the federal government is to rubber stamp that permit so that the project can move ahead.
Second, this project will create lots of jobs: 28,000 good, high-paying jobs for both indigenous and non-indigenous people in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and the rest of western Canada. As we come out of the pandemic, unemployed Canadians are going to need jobs to go back to, and the Alaska to Alberta railway can help create these jobs.
Third, this railway presents an exciting opportunity to connect Yukon and the Northwest Territories with the rest of Canada and to open up Canada's north. Residents in Yukon and the Northwest Territories pay some of the highest grocery bills in the country because foodstuffs have to be flown in to remote northern communities by airplane or trucked in during the winter across ice roads over frozen lakes and rivers.
According to a recent study by the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition, the living wage rate in White Horse was $19.07 per hour in 2019. That places White Horse among the highest costs of living anywhere in the country. If the people in the Yukon and Northwest Territories had regular, reliable rail service, then grocery bills and the cost of living would go down and the people in the north would have more money left over in their pockets at the end of the month.
Finally, the Alaska to Alberta railway will help the landlocked provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta to get western Canadian resources to international markets. Saskatchewan and Alberta produce more wheat, barley, canola, lentils, oil, natural gas and potash than we can possibly consume domestically. Anything that we can do to get those goods to tidewater and on to international markets will be beneficial to everyone.
I realize that the government has not yet received an initial project description for the Alaska to Alberta railway, but I would like to know if the government can at least see the potential benefits that this project presents to both indigenous and non-indigenous people in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and the rest of western Canada. Will the government commit to working in good faith and in co-operation with the Alaska to Alberta Railway Development Corporation so this project is given every consideration to move forward to the benefit of everyone involved?