Mr. Chairman, I agree that we need to improve the response to spill line. As a result of the spill that occurred at Fort Providence, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board announced that the board will initiate an investigation into all aspects of the spill. Out of this investigation, there is no doubt that there will be recommendations coming out, how to best respond to spills, especially in the Northwest Territories, and other areas, in waters, land, rivers.
As most of the Northwest Territories is Crown land, the Northwest Territories government does not normally have the full responsibility of responding, nor do we have sufficient resources to have a spill contingency team that could respond to the spill. Although we are involved in the monitoring, and also we take part in the spill reporting line, the Canadian Council of Ministers, environmental agencies in Canada, presently prescribe the polluted pays principle and that they also require to have a plan in place to respond to clean ups, respond to spills for the purpose of cleaning it up. Thank you.