Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This past weekend, on Saturday, I spent a few hours with some other volunteers bagging groceries at the local Co-op store as a fundraiser. It was a very successful afternoon, Mr. Speaker, but as I was packing the groceries along the conveyor belt there, it was hard not to notice the number of containers, cans and packages that go through the grocery tills and, of course, in our homes that contain the food that we eat. In another seven days, Mr. Speaker, we are going to be passing along, for any beverage that people choose to buy in these containers, an extra 15 cents apiece. If you are a mother that goes through several juice boxes a week, you might find yourself several dollars behind because of that expense. If you go through a few cans of pop or juice at home, if you go through any other kind of beverage, you are going to be paying an extra 15 cents apiece.

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that the information there that has already been circulated on this program, and that we are going to see more of, suggests that there is maybe 10 cents that one is going to be out of pocket. The reality is that it is 15 cents that is coming out of the consumer's pocket. They will get 10 cents back if they live in a community, Mr. Speaker, where there is a depot, or they can take that container back and get refunded.

Mr. Speaker, I have had quite a bit of traffic from constituents who are really alarmed at the unfairness of this program as we know it today where, especially, really in the small communities, there is a huge unfairness going on here, because those consumers will not be able to take their containers back and get their refund, yet they are going to be charged. People in the bigger communities, including Yellowknife, have got a good system, and we can rely on that. We certainly support the efforts that are behind this program for recycling. But we have a major problem to fix in its implementation at the small community level, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

---Applause