His maiden speech in the Senate was delivered in August of 1977 during the debate surrounding the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. Adams brought his unique Indigenous and northern perspective to the discussions. His views are still worth quoting at length today.

Senator Willie Adams: Those of us who live in the north, and those who will be coming to the north to set up their homes, will not be able to live off the caribou and fish in the future.

The population is growing and everything costs twice as much as it does in the south. It costs us more for our food and clothing. Everything has to be brought in by ship or plane. Everything has to be subsidized. Even the ordinary trapper requires a lot of money to buy food, gasoline, and everything else that he needs. At one time dog teams were in use, but now there is hardly a dog team to be seen. Skidoos and Bombardiers are now used, which use twice as much gas as cars use in the south. The oil will flow south and the gasoline will come back to us at a higher cost. People in northern communities will have to pay more for it, and the price will be in favour of the companies producing it and not for the benefit of the people living in the north.

If the pipeline goes through, construction may take three or four years, but after that few people will have a job. Only qualified people will be able to look after such installations as pumping stations. It takes five or six years to train a person, and there will not be enough trained people in the north for the various jobs.

The whole matter should be looked into. We should see what the people who live in the north feel about it. We should also bear in mind the views of those who will be living there in the future. Much will have to be done before we have a pipeline built between the north and the south.