Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as my colleague Mr. Braden indicated, we are surrounded by water in the Northwest Territories. Good water, and we tend to take it for granted. We turn on our taps at home and just assume automatically that good water is going to come out of there, that it will be there and will always be there. As we have found with Walkerton, that is not always the case and may not always be the case.
Right now, Mr. Speaker, Canada's drinking water quality guidelines set out our national standards and includes physical, chemical and biological standards. Mr. Speaker, making sure that the water is pure, clean and drinkable is not a simple task. Right now, we are overseen by the Northwest Territories Water and Waste Association and their certification program, which trains people who handle water and sewer.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the hard work they have done and the level of service they provide to us in what is basically a legislative and standards vacuum on the part of governments. Mr. Speaker, there are only two jurisdictions in Canada that have mandatory certification training for those people that work with water and waste. Once again, as we have seen with Walkerton, if it is not regulated, if there are no standards, bad things can happen.
In the Northwest Territories, we have been very lucky to date, but I think it is time for the government to step up to the plate to work with the Northwest Territories Water and Waste Association to set some basic standards that this association and all of the people handling water in the Northwest Territories communities on behalf of all of us can have a legislative framework that they can work with. One that will provide the kinds of guarantees that we need as a Territory to ensure that there is never a problem like Walkerton. We cannot continue to rely on voluntary certification. We cannot continue to rely on the fact that good water is going to come out of these taps on its own. I will be asking the Minister later today about the government's plans to take this issue to the next step; to have mandatory certification for water and waste handlers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
-- Applause