Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been seven years in the making, but today, as the Minister of RWED indicated in his opening statement, the world has the Kyoto Protocol at its doorstep. Mr. Speaker, this is a significant piece of work. I think we should reflect here in this Assembly that it is entirely consistent with one of the main fundamental goals and values that the Assembly has set for itself; not only this 15th Assembly, but the previous ones, Mr. Speaker, have all valued the environment very highly.

Depending on who you listen to, Canada is going to fare very well or very poorly because of Kyoto. It is amazing the diversity of opinion on what this is going to do. But, you know, we should look, Mr. Speaker, at at least one startling statistic out of the organization of economic cooperation in developing countries. There are 32 in that list. Canada ranks fourth highest in the production of greenhouse gases. That amounts to 16.7 tonnes per person, Mr. Speaker. There is no doubt that there is increasing climatic change and instability in the world today. There is no doubt in my mind that I and everyone here and around the...there are some 6.5 billion people in the world who are a major cause of it. Whatever actions are taken will not quickly turn the ship around. So it leaves us to see what we can do about it.

The Minister has already indicated two of the things that, here in the NWT, I believe are quite significant. One is our own internal efforts with the work of the Arctic Energy Alliance, which was created about six years ago to help coordinate and bring together the work of primary energy producers and users. The other one is the initiative, Mr. Speaker, to harness and put to work the vast hydro potential that the Northwest Territories has, not only for us, but for everyone in our neighbourhood. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause