Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To follow up on Mr. Pokiak's question on the Species at Risk Act, I mentioned it in my region and they certainly want to see some development. This has been long overdue in terms of this whole Northwest Territories development policy. It seems like we would certainly be in favour of seeing this come together and see some light on this Species at Risk Act by having this come to some reality by the end of the life of this government.
I certainly encourage the Minister to know how important this Species at Risk Act is to our people here, to get the players on board to move it along in a speedy fashion, as Mr. Pokiak was saying. I certainly would support the Minister in whatever he can do to get this Species at Risk Act into some form of document that we could be proud of at the end of the life of this government. I guess I wanted to convey that message also to the Minister in terms of my correspondence with my region over the last couple of days. This was a big issue and I just am relaying that
message to the Minister on behalf of our people in the Sahtu region.
Mr. Chairman, the question I want to ask specific to the Minister is on the Protected Areas Strategy. As you know, our region is one of the areas that are indicated for the Protected Areas Strategy. I want to ask the Minister regarding the areas around the Sahtu; Great Bear Lake and the Fort Good Hope area. How is this government going to work with the federal government to ensure that these areas receive the proper protection under the Protected Areas Strategy and those areas that were identified by our people and this government? Thank you.