Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, every country in the world is facing pressures on water, on fresh water, including Canada, including the Northwest Territories. We know that. We can see that around us. We know that river levels are dropping. We know that groundwater is disappearing. We know there is enormous pressure south of us for research development that has a direct impact on what comes flowing through into the Northwest Territories.

Our concern about water is fuelled by climate change, which in turn is fuelled by a burgeoning population which is now about six billion people, which is expected to reach over 10 billion people in the next decade or so. That, in turn, fuels an insatiable demand for resource development and the pressure on us is to balance the resource development with a sustainable environment, a healthy environment, which his built on water.

Climate change is manifesting itself to us most fundamentally by water and what is happening to the water that comes into our territory and flows through into the ocean.

Mr. Speaker, there is a need for us, as a territory, to coordinate our efforts, internally first with the aboriginal governments and with the other stakeholder groups as we did with the Caribou Summit to plan out how we want to address the pressures that are tied to us and coming to us from water. Internally, we have to organize ourselves as a government and as a territory about how we use water ourselves, but of equal importance is how do we address the pressures in other jurisdictions, the transboundary issues, specifically in Alberta.

Right now, we have bands like Deninu Kue going on their own speaking their concerns about the tar sands development. We have the Dehcho people going to northern Alberta to talk about their concerns with the other aboriginal governments. Clearly there is a need for a united northern front which does not yet exist. Our obligation as a government is to coordinate that in the

coming months as we look forward to life past the 15th Assembly about how we are going to organize ourselves to deal with that particular issue which, in turn, will lead to that fundamental discussion about resource development, what is our best interest, how fast do we move and how fast do we exploit all the resources we have at our disposal. Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to conclude my statement.