Mr. Speaker, it is true that, although we have no responsibility for water, that all responsibility for water primarily resides with different federal departments at this time.
We do have a responsibility to work on behalf of our people to ensure that everything is done to ensure water quality, and to maintain a healthy and viable ecosystem in the different water basins that exist in the Northwest Territories. We have worked, for instance, with the federal government on setting up several monitoring systems. We have worked with the federal government in Alberta, doing a study that would look at how we can work co-operatively to look at the type of research and monitoring that should be in place in dealing with water systems that we share with Alberta.
We have worked for a number of years with the governments of Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and the federal government to come up with a transboundary water agreement that would have everyone commit, along with aboriginal peoples, to work in a cooperative fashion to ensure that everything is done to share information and to share the responsibility for managing and monitoring the waters that we all share in this particular part of Canada. Yes, we do not have any direct responsibility, but we have been active in taking every opportunity given to us in the last few years to actively lobby and take part in studies and programs that involve waters. Thank you.