Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, Mr. Steen implies, perhaps in a benign way but still it needs to be addressed, that every time we have a policy it automatically means it costs the government more money. I do not think that should go unchallenged. I think it should be said some things are just as necessary to do as your daily bodily functions. You cannot go without them. In our case, we are a government that presides over a range of aboriginal people who have been here for thousands of years and who have a huge body of knowledge that most of us have absolutely no idea about. To start suggesting at the onset that it is automatically costing us more money and not see it as an investment, I think can be seen as derogative. The fact is for anybody to suggest that although people have been living here for thousands of years, different people adapt, the Inuvialuit, the Dene and the different nations of the Dene including the Metis, that for all the thousands of years we have existed and the tremendous amount of use and knowledge we have acquired living on this land and making use of resources that we have absolutely nothing to contribute to the scientific community. We have absolutely no knowledge that is worth looking at is astounding. That is being suggested in some quarters. I am not saying that Mr. Steen is saying that, but because it does start to wander in that area, I think we need to address it up front. I wanted to make the point that it is, in my view, an investment.

We are not fully aware of the full potential and use of traditional knowledge. Mr. Steen points a more measurable one which is the profound knowledge that aboriginal people have on different species of wildlife and their habitat. The scientific community has taken to that very easily. There are other areas that are not as well known or recognized and perhaps more controversial. We should view it in the same way, that it is worth looking at and should be treated with respect even if we cannot measure it with our conventional scientific instruments. Thank you.