Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the number one identified priority of Canadians has recently been cited to be the stewardship of our natural environment. One could argue that the population in the Northwest Territories and the population so minute in the grand scheme of world greenhouse gas generation that what we do doesn't really matter. If we have a vast and pristine country with unlimited clean air and water, why would we concern ourselves with the amounts of greenhouse gases that we contribute?
Just look at any major highway in southern California on any given day. Look at the number of jets flying the global skies; look at the concentration of industry in developed
countries and then look at us, a little speck of people on a big map.
Some would make the argument that no matter what we do, we are still going to be the place where a lot of pollution ends up. I am sure some of the contaminants that have been detected in our free-ranging wildlife in the North isn't from pollutants that were generated by anyone living in the North.
Mr. Speaker, I submit to you that if everyone took an attitude of not me, no one would go first in addressing the consumption of energy and how it is affecting the world that we live in. The world is getting smaller every day in terms of travel and communication, and actions in one part of the world significantly impact another part, even if it's far away.
We have a lot of good reasons why we should conserve energy. For one thing, it would save money. For another, it would preserve the environment. Every time I hear about the energy-hungry markets for natural gas and oil in southern Canada and the U.S. market and the need for jurisdictions like ours and Alberta's with natural resources to respond to that demand, I think to myself why don't we slow it down, build more energy-efficient buildings, drive more energy-efficient vehicles, find clean alternate energy sources.
How do we get off this merry-go-round of thinking we need more consumables, bigger homes, bigger cars? We spend our lives in the pursuit of things that consume our money, our time, our life and, ultimately, our environment.
Mr. Speaker, I resist the theory that more is better. I think that's what we all need to do if we're going to lessen the impact of this generation on our environment. I don't know how we get buy-in for being more minimalist in our expectations and our wasted resources, but this government and the people of the North definitely do have a role to play. We need community energy plans. We need personal energy plans. This government needs to be the leader, create incentives and assist people in making choices which are more environmentally and economically sound, and where this government is the designer, builder and owner of much infrastructure, we also need to implement strong principles of conservation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause