Should the Arctic get a general air transportation subsidy?

It was Sir John A. MacDonald who “saw the Canadian Pacific Railway as essential to the creation of a unified Canadian nation that would stretch across the country…” in 1881, when he was prime minister of Canada.

The different provinces joined in this creation one at a time. Apparently the Hudson’s Bay Co. owned where we were, “Rupert’s Land” and sold the land to the federal government to later create the Northwest Territories.

As we all know, we became Nunavut on April 1, 1999.

So perhaps, this country is still unfinished, so may I hereby declare that Nunavut wishes to join this country and be physically connected, just like the other provinces.

So not only will this great achievement be known as “joining the country from coast to coast to coast” but will be joining the country from “coast to coast to coast to coast”, the way it should be or again, are we not a part of Canada?

The payment of full taxes applies to me so yes, I say I am a Canadian.

Although we have no highways or railroads to our territory, we do have commercial passenger airlines who fly in and out of here.

Therefore, we need the federal government to offer a “General Transportation Subsidy” to make it possible and affordable for us to be a part of this country we call Canada.

Right now we put up with outrageous prices for every single thing flown up here. Yes, we do have a barge season in the summer, the shortest summer in the country.

We are one of the only peoples who have to do business with only passenger and cargo airplanes.

As I was writing this, Amazon, the great and wonderful online store announced that they will no longer offer free shipping to remote communities, meaning us.

We created “Feeding our Family” to combat against the very unfair and discombobulated Nutrition North Canada program.

We unfortunately go to extremes to prove our point about the high cost of living where we are.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have been a people so strong and resilient, then maybe the decision-makers could walk a day in our shoes when they’ve caught us up with the rest of the country rather than be likened to Third World conditions.

Donna Adams
Rankin Inlet

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