Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yesterday, some of the Members talked about the federal government plans to phase out the automatic weather observation system in the near future, as well as the remote communities outlets, RCOs, in this part of the country. In fact, according to my understanding, their plan was to phase out the observer communicators to replace them with automatic weather observation systems, AWOS, and with remote communication outlets, RCOs.

According to my information, Mr. Chairman, this was done in the Edmonton area and, Mr. Chairman, the system proved unreliable about 60 per cent of the time. Mr. Chairman, in the Kitikmeot region, the communities are scattered, and, in most cases, the only means of transportation in the wintertime is by air, of course. Medical evacuations are done by air. It is a long distance from here to Cambridge Bay. Mr. Chairman, in the past 20 years -- also according to my information -- there have been about 100 people in the NWT perish because of the weather; especially in winter when the daylight is very short. Mr. Chairman, I don't think the federal government should wait until an aircraft crash occurs in this part of the country. I would urge the honourable Minister of Transportation and the government of this particular jurisdiction to try and convince the government that in the northern part of the country electronics are not reliable. Also, Mr. Chairman, if we replace the observer communicators with the automatic weather observation systems or with remote communication outlets, we would be losing some very important jobs. We don't have too many jobs available in this part of the country and I would, like my colleagues who have spoken to the issue, urge the honourable Minister to communicate with the federal government that what they propose to do is not acceptable in the north. Thank you.