On the occasion of the official inauguration of the Arctic Technology Centre in Sisimiut
On behalf of the local council I want to extend a hearty welcome to the Arctic Technology Centre to Sisimiut. And a special welcome to the two ministers, Birthe Weiss and you, Lise S. Lennert. It is a pleasure to see all of you. Here in Sisimiut we realise how lucky we are in having the Building and Construction School which is a highly functional school. We look forward to meeting young, active, articulate students in town and I am sure that our wonderful Sisimiut will become an even better place when the young people living here get a chance to meet with others of the same age. The local council also realises that new demands will emerge as a consequence of this development. If we want to become an educational city we must also provide the sparetime facilities required. We do have some already today. This afternoon we visited various projects, very exciting projects. We feel lucky here in this town because those kinds of projects in themselves will promote trade and industry. I see these projects as a drop in the ocean. The Scouts Lake, the water lake that makes rings in the water, the rings will push others who will make their own rings. As a matter of fact, I can already envision our swimming baths with solar energy, touched up with palm trees, tropical plants, etc. where students from the Arctic Technology Centre may come after class. We are of course also grateful for the dump project, our incineration plant was set in operation at the very last minute. I am glad that our group contributed to speeding up the construction of the plant, this was the only acceptable solution.
It is a well-known fact that the Arctic is very vulnerable. We must take good care of the environment. Our hinterland is the size of Sealand. To some people this appears to be huge, so huge that it should be exploited to the fullest. But we are a people that love to go hunting. This is our culture. We know that in order to continue to exist, the animals and nature itself must have a large area at their disposal. Thus, knowing how to exploit our hinterland is vital. It is my hope that the Arctic Technology Centre will apply their knowledge to help us find a way to exploit our hinterland in the right way.
I thank everybody who has taken active part in establishing the Arctic Technology Centre. Thank you very much and once again, welcome everybody.
Agathe Fontain, deputy mayor in Sisimiut