Yes, we looked at the Member's question thoroughly. We tried to answer the way the question was posed to us. The question says that PanArctic Oil has also been told by Indian and Northern Affairs not to dispose of their equipment underground. Later on, the Member asked why have these organizations received approval for different ways of disposing of their garbage? Therefore, Mr. Speaker, since he is talking about Indian and Northern Affairs, my department had to research why the Indian and Northern Affairs did not look into letting PanArctic Oil dispose of their garbage underground. The reason they gave us was that first of all PanArctic Oil, in my response to the Member, has not proposed land burial as a method of waste disposal. They go on to say that their reason for not seeking burial on land is because of the high content of ice in the soil. If the garbage were buried in this soil, the freezing and thawing action would eventually cause the garbage to raise back out of the ground.
Mr. Speaker, our position is quite clear. In our meeting my representatives said there should not be ocean dumping.
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Also, in our statement we said the federal government has to look at their policy which allows industries to dump in the ocean. They allow them to dump garbage in the ocean, according to the current process. I have written a letter to the Minister of the Environment asking him to review his policy stating that ocean dumping is not acceptable to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.