Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have to apologize. I am not clear that it actually is 10 years. I haven't been given that detail. I do know that it is a longerterm contract. The fuel supply for Iqaluit is a very large proportion of the Eastern Arctic fuel resupply. In 1996, Iqaluit received over 53 million litres of fuel. For the rest of the Territories, in 1995-96, the total resupply was 94.857 million. This Iqaluit contract is a large one that will be entered into with a consortium of Nunavut firms who will have to make a relatively large investment in order to get it off the ground. It was felt that a longer-term contract was needed to encourage them to get going on it.

This is a new requirement for the government because it was previously handled by the federal government. They are only turning it over to us for this coming season. So it will be the first time that we have an obligation in Iqaluit that previously has been handled by the federal government. It was our intention, rather than continuing the arrangements they had, to go out to tender and see if we could get a northern business interested in doing it rather than continuing the arrangements the federal government had with Shell Canada.