Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we agree that the countries that do not have forests and want to deal with the global warming issue by creating forests to deal with the carbon dioxide emissions, that is the purpose of carbon sinks, to do that.

There are also problems in the agricultural area where they are depleting the carbon in the soil through agricultural use. That is a very complicated area for us. We up here in the North, we are a very small player in this whole issue. However, we are very concerned about it because whatever happens globally regarding the warming of the atmosphere has a big effect on us up here in the Northwest Territories.

Our position is that we would be supporting and encouraging our federal government to go ahead and work towards the ratification of the Kyoto Accord. I understand that in developing our positions, the federal government will be listening to views of people in Canada, including the northern stakeholders and residents. The federal government will do a consultation process up here. From that, the federal government will be developing a position.

At this point in time we are encouraging and supporting the initiative of the federal government to go ahead and move ahead with the commitment they have made to sign the Kyoto Protocol eventually. Thank you.