Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Among the many issues that face governments today, one stands out with glaring importance and that is the sustainability of clean, fresh water. It is our most precious resource; the very essence of life on this planet. In all of Canada, in all of the world, Mr. Speaker, Canada -- and especially our part of Canada -- is blessed with a ready abundance of clean, renewable water.
Great Bear and Great Slave lakes alone are listed as the seventh and ninth largest in the world by area. So it's little wonder, Mr. Speaker, that we northerners have taken this tremendous gift for granted for so long. But the signals are undeniable. Clean water is a gift that we can no longer count on as a given. It is under enormous threat due to our warming climate and the disappearing glaciers and snowfields of the South that feed the rivers flowing north.
Mr. Speaker, our northern waters are virtually under attack from the voracious pace of development in Alberta and British Columbia, the devastating effects of the Bennett Dam on the Peace-Athabasca delta after more than 30 years of impact are all too well known. They were followed up in more recent years by major pulp and paper development in northern Alberta and today the insatiable appetite for fresh water from the tar sands development. Tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, it may be an enormous hydro development virtually on our doorstep on the Alberta side of the Slave River near Fort Smith.
While there are many things that we can do as individuals, and communities, and territorial governments to manage and conserve water at our local levels, it is the threats from outside that we must heed. It is imperative, Mr. Speaker, that we use every resource available of research, traditional knowledge, treaty and modern day agreements, national and international law, to protect our rights to clean, reliable, uninterrupted waters. We must be at the legislative and regulatory tables that are now deciding what they will do tomorrow with the waters that we will inherit from them. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.