Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for some time, we in the Northwest Territories have had trouble with the issue of hazardous waste. Rather, I should say, trouble with what to do with them after we've finished using them or, at times, with where they've been created. This issue is one which is territorial-wide and not only in the industrialized communities such as Yellowknife, Pine Point and Hay River, but wherever things such as PCBs and other chemicals are used.
We have had few choices over the years as to what to do with them. Either we've had to recycle them, had to store them or else had to destroy them in some way. Unfortunately, the only option we had was to store them, until quite recently. Thanks to the diligence of this government and particularly the Department of Renewable Resources, now we have a solution in sight through the Swan Hills hazardous waste incinerator that was built some time ago and only updated recently to handle quite a variety and amount of hazardous waste.
In September of this year, the Alberta government announced that the Swan Hills treatment facility will accept all hazardous waste from the Northwest Territories, including PCBs, on an intermediate basis. This is good news, Mr. Speaker, because it gives us an opportunity to get rid of the hazardous waste we currently have in storage at very little cost to us, and in an environmentally safe manner.
I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to the Alberta government on behalf of the people I represent, in particular Premier Klein who was the former Minister of the Environment and the one who this government negotiated with on this matter. I also wish to thank the Honourable Brian Evans, the current Minister of the Environment, whose responsibility this comes under. This is indeed good news for us and we will certainly take advantage of it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause