Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon colleagues. I am sure that Members of the House are now aware that the proper cleanup of the old DEW Lines sites are a priority of mine. I have made several statements outlining my concerns and was informed by our territorial government that cleanup of the sites will be completed soon. This year, an evaluation team was scheduled to access the Cape Christian site. However, I recently learned that the federal government under the advisement of Environment Canada and the Canadian military, have proposed that current toxic waste laws be changed to allow for PCBs and other waste to be buried in the Arctic.

Year after year, the government had advised me efforts are underway to remove PCBs and other garbage from DEW Line sites. Some of the sites are located near communities where children could get injured or near traditional hunting and harvesting areas. Once the toxins get into the plants and animals, they are recycled through our fragile ecosystem. By ingesting local game, residents also ingest those same toxins.

Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories, when people agree to do something, they do it. They do not tell you one thing and then do another. In the north a pat on the back is just that. Mr. Speaker, I wish to remind the territorial and federal government that each polluted abandoned DEW Line site represents a theft from the health of the northerners. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I wish to take this opportunity to remind both governments of their commitment to clean up all DEW Line sites according to the accepted environmental standards of nearby communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.