Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, in the 70's, there was a gas pipeline proposed to go down the Mackenzie Valley. It was based on the perception that the United States needed gas at the time. It was deemed economical to do that.

The difficulty that the producers and the Canadian Government ran into was that the communities and the people here in the Northwest Territories were neither informed nor involved in that decision.

Today, as Mr. Handley has pointed out, we are at a point where the U.S. was in dire need of gas last year. It precipitated discussions between the U.S. President and our Prime Minister on at least two different occasions.

I think it is important for us as a government to respond to that. That was the fundamental need to fast-track the idea of an Energy Secretariat. If we are going to sustain support for a pipeline and oil and gas development in the Delta, in the Liard, then we need people at the community level to be aware of not only the demand globally, continentally in the U.S. and in Canada, but just to know how everything fits together; what the environmental concerns are, what is Canada doing regarding the Kyoto Protocol, what it means to us in terms of revenue, not only for our government but for emerging aboriginal governments as well.

We are proposing a hydro strategy. There are specific hydro projects that are in place there as well.

All to say that all of these things could be good things, but they are not worth anything if we do not take the steps to ensure that our people, at the community level, have the basic information they need to feel comfortable and to feel informed about the decisions they will be compelled to make with us in the next couple of years. It is fast tracking it, we agree.

Maybe, as Ms. Lee says, we are better off to build a kilometre of road. I guess I differ substantially. I think this is an investment we need so that we can protect the public willingness and support to look at pipeline proposals, the continued oil and gas development. This Energy Secretariat is our way of trying to make sure that the information is there at the community level for people. That is really what it is.

I ask Members to see it as an investment. We still have substantial support from our communities for oil and gas development, both in the Liard and the Mackenzie Delta, but Members are also aware that people are concerned. Unless they know what is going on and they have basic information, they are not willing to proceed at any great speed. If there is no move to invest in roads, invest in social initiatives that could negate some of the impact of development, then people are not going to be so willing as they are now.

It is trying to protect the momentum we have. That is really what it is for me. I hope Members can see that. Thank you.