Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a return to oral question asked by Mr. Nitah on October 31, 2002, regarding the final Government of the Northwest Territories report on the Kyoto Protocol.

As Members are aware, the GNWT supports the Kyoto Protocol because it is the only coordinated plan to control the global problem of climate change. It is for this reason that the GNWT is committed to participating in federal, provincial and territorial discussions at both the Premier and the ministerial levels so that Canada can develop a truly national implementation plan.

At the October 28, 2002, meeting of energy and environment Ministers, the federal government released a draft framework of actions it is proposing to take. Although considerable work needs to be taken to finalize a national implementation plan for climate change, including the insertion of actions that provinces and territories have agreed should be part of any national plan, the federal government recently released an economic analysis of their draft framework.

The Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development has completed a review of the federal analysis and a summary copy was provided to all Members of the Legislative Assembly on November 29th.

This is the first time that economic impacts on the three territories have been broken out in any Canadian economic analysis of the cost of controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, impacts on territorial gross domestic product, GDP, are forecast to be within the range of zero to -0.7 percent of forecast GDP relative to a business-as-usual scenario. This impact is less than that which is forecast for any other provincial GDP.

There is still a lot of uncertainty about the projected impacts on our economy. RWED officials will continue to review the assumptions and methods used to prepare these economic analyses. However, it is worth noting that the federal approach outlined in their draft framework does not indicate significant price increases for the fuels we use in the North. The analysis also anticipates that markets for our exports will continue, and most important, federal Ministers Anderson and Dhaliwal have assured me that natural gas from a Mackenzie Valley pipeline will continue to be required in a Kyoto world. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.