Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we believe there are almost in the neighbourhood of 700 known contaminated sites in the Northwest Territories. Potentially there are sites that we don't know about. This is what makes our devolution negotiations very critical and important to do right. We don't want to be strapped with contaminated sites from the past that we were unaware of and then be on the hook for the cleanup of those sites. So that is one of the principles that we're operating under when we negotiate with the federal government.

Cleanup of many of these sites ends up being the responsibility of the federal government. There are a number of different federal agencies that their mandates are interwoven, be it CEAA, DFO or DIAND, depending on the nature of the problem. I would say that we're willing to work with any community that believes that they've spotted an environmental situation for cleanup and help them better understand the jurisdiction and roles of the federal agencies responsible and then help them in pursuing funding from those agencies to see these sites cleaned up. I think it's in the best interests of the federal government to be very forthright in dealing with people and acknowledging their responsibilities and moving forward to clean them up as well.

We will certainly champion that cause and work with communities who believe that there are sites that need to be cleaned up and vigorously pursue funding from the federal government to do so. Thank you, Madam Chair.