Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the revised numbers on the cost of the Mackenzie gas project have recently been announced. The projected grand total amounts to $16.2 billion and the proposed start of product movement has been pushed back to 2014. I want to list the published bottom lines for some of the players for the fourth quarter for 2006. Now, remember, this is just for the fourth quarter of 2006: Imperial Oil, total earnings, $749 million; Exxon Mobil Corporation, total earnings, $10.250 billion; Shell Canada, total earnings, $223 million; ConocoPhillips, total earnings just for the fourth quarter, $3.197 billion.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard off and on that this project is economically marginal. We are just one of many projects that, worldwide, any of these companies could be pursuing at this time. We have also occasionally heard of the notion that these proponents may seek financial subsidy or incentive from the federal government to jumpstart this project. So let's just paint a picture of where we fit into this program.

Without devolution or resource revenue sharing with Ottawa, the Government of Canada is going to be the big winners when it comes to royalty revenues. Right now, Ottawa has control of our resources. They appoint all members to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board. They are the stewards, guardians and trustees of our northern resources and our future. They have already clearly said that they support the Mackenzie gas project. The Prime Minister, on his visit to Yellowknife, said, and I quote, "We are committed to renewing and strengthening territorial formula financing and equalization. A New Deal on resource revenue sharing is inseparable from those negotiations. It won't happen unless the North builds an open competitive market economy where the resource industry can flourish. It won't happen unless you make sure projects like the Mackenzie gas pipeline come to fruition because, without them, no amount of transfer payments will give the North the future that they deserve."

Mr. Speaker, when Alaskans wanted to beat us to the punch in building their pipeline, we strongly protested about the fairness of any kind of subsidy or floor price that would propel their project to the front of the line. So, Mr. Speaker, I ask, what is missing in this picture when it comes to the interests of northerners? Later today, I will have questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment as to our government's position on federal taxpayers' money being used to sweeten the terms for multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporations that need help from our government...