Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am going to be supporting the motion that is before us today, for a variety of reasons. I agree with my colleague from Tu Nedhe, that the way the department has the program set up to date, is absolutely unfair to the smaller communities; communities where spending $11 for a jug of juice is not uncommon. I have seen it myself when I have been to some of the smaller communities. To put the burden back on them to help pay for this program, I think is completely unfair.
I think my predecessor in this House, the former Speaker and now the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, had envisioned this program at least 10 or 12 years ago. The department had been working on this program now for at least five years. Why, one week before the program is supposed to roll out, are we stranded here? Some of the smaller communities have no idea when, or who, is going to be responsible for the program in their communities. I think it is completely unfair. I think before you go forward with a plan like this, you have to know all of the variables. Right now, Mr. Speaker, we don't know what the variables are. We don't know who is going to be delivering the program in the communities that don't have depots. We don't know what it is going to cost. We don't know what the volume of recyclables is going to be in the communities that don't have depots. There are just too many unanswered questions, Mr. Speaker, in my mind, to allow this plan to go forward.
I will be the first one to stand up here and say I support this program. I really do. I know the Minister knows I support it, and other Members in the House know I support the program. I support recycling. It will make sense in some of our communities, Mr. Speaker, but it definitely doesn't make sense to go forward with this without the full comprehensive plan of who is going to do what in each community, and what it is going to cost. That is about all I have to say for this, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
---Applause