Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In the area of environmental cleanup and related restoration costs, the committee is very concerned with the government's lack of action in addressing the environmental liability issue. As this issue will definitely be on the table during the asset liability
negotiations between the various northern parties, the committee is of the opinion that as a minimum, the government should perform a sort of triage on the environmental liabilities list. The primary goal of this triage should be to identify the sites and where there is a potential for harm to NWT residents, employees or wildlife, to identify the associated cleanup costs and to create a plan and identify the necessary funding, to deal immediately with these sites. The next goal of the triage should be to identify the sites, for the Government of the NWT may have inherited a liability, the responsible agency or government for each site and to inform the appropriate bodies of the NWT government's potential statement of claim. As a first step, the committee feels that the government must identify the money to conduct the initial site review.