Thank you. Madam Chair, the Member is correct in that efforts of the community and the government in the past were not always successful in controlling the erosion. It has been more like a trial and error process. Over the past 10 or 15 years, in particular, the communities have tried sand bagging, cement blocks and all different remedies suggested by the engineers. However, the particular solution they've come up with right now and is proving to be successful is hauling rocks from Inuvik, and that idea originally came from the same process being used in Nome, Alaska. Some of the council members had an opportunity to go over there and see firsthand the effectiveness of solid rock on the shorelines. So they started using this over the last two or three years and it's very effective. It increases the build-up by the ocean on the rock and it protects the shoreline from further erosion, in particular due to exposure when global warming takes its effect.

However, this past summer, it was pretty evident to the community that, with the influence of global warming now, the erosion is proceeding faster than the community had experienced in the past. In the past, they had an arrangement with government that they would receive $100,000 a year in O and M funding. They would keep using that to brace rock, however, the community is very concerned that they don't have much time and they have the opportunity now that they have capital funding that was originally designed and earmarked for another project in town, a solid waste site. They have the opportunity now. They didn't do the work this year and they suggest the priority would be more to put that funding towards the shoreline, do it in one year, rather than four years and save the cost of further erosion. That is what is justifying the continuation of support in the erosion control program.

I note, Madam Chair, that we are not just throwing rocks into the ocean, as the Member suggests. I note that the community of Aklavik, even though it was predicted to disappear a long time ago, is still there too. People have a tendency to want to protect their communities, so government is trying to allow them the opportunity of making their own decisions. In this regard, MACA did support the suggestion that we take capital and use it for O and M.