Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I stand today in support of this bill. I think it's important to note that for a time in the past six months, given our busy and ambitious agenda, this bill was in jeopardy of falling off the agenda. Due to an outpouring of support from people in the communities calling their MLAs, we took the issue up with the Minister and the Minister responded and recognized that this was a priority and he was going to get it back on track. I am certainly glad he has, and I think the proof of that is here today.

I think this is certainly good legislation. We know that the easier we make it for people to recycle, the more likely they are to do it, Mr. Speaker. I think that's just the simple truth. I look forward to working with committee to iron out the details of this legislation. I have had several concerns raised with me about the actual administration of the bill and the regime. There are some concerns, for instance, about how a beverage container deposit will be collected and administered. We have to make sure that if we're expecting wholesalers in the Northwest Territories to charge deposits to retailers and the food and beverage outfits, that those same retailers and food and beverage people can't simply order non-deposit pop from Alberta and save $2.40 a flat. So we're going to have to either decide how we're going to police this, or come up with a mechanism and a regime for making sure that this doesn't happen, or else this really will defeat the purpose of this bill. So I look forward to seeing how that administration is laid out. But I wanted to stand here again and thank the government and thank this Minister for taking action and bringing this bill before us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause