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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - At a First Minister's meeting in Ottawa last Monday, Premier Floyd Roland told the prime minister and fellow premiers that infrastructure investments in the NWT would pay dividends to Canadians in the future.

Floyd Roland: All three territorial premiers want to see more infrastructure investment.

"The type of investment we are looking at would mean a payback to Canada in the long run," Roland told News/North after having returned to Yellowknife last week.

Speaking on Northern investment at the conference, Roland touched upon hydro development and the Mackenzie Valley Highway as areas that would benefit all of Canada, he said.

The projects would create jobs and open up the North, he said, meaning it would lower the cost of doing business in the NWT. He also said it would lower the cost of living.

Roland said all three territorial premiers want to see more infrastructure investment.

"As the three territories, we have the same concern that we are still trying to catch up with our infrastructure investment in the North," he told News/North.

At the conference, Roland spoke about a recent report released by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which urges the government to invest in infrastructure, specifically in the transportation and energy areas.

No time was devoted to discussing federal housing and health funding money that is set to elapse next year, although Roland said he expected to hear an update on this situation later this month, in federal finance minister Jim Flaherty's economic update.

November has been a busy month for Roland, who was also in Halifax, N.S., on Nov. 4 to meet with energy and environment ministers at a Council of the Federation Conference hosted by Nova Scotia Premier Rodney McDonald. From there, he travelled to Kuujjuaq, Que., for an Inuit Circumpolar Conference on Inuit sovereignty.

Roland said the premiers will meet with the prime minister again in January, when there will be a more formal agenda. "That next meeting will be a little more in-depth and we will have some results coming out of it," he said.