Mr. Chairman, this is a very important issue which is why collectively we agreed to spend the money we have and the time and resources. We are very close to the final phases of signing off our draft Water Strategy which will no longer be draft. It will be our policy base and then we also have money in the budget to look at implementing throughout the whole Mackenzie River basin.

The issue of adequate monitoring is a very significant issue, not only the amount of monitoring but are we monitoring for the right things. Dr. Schindler just completed a fairly extensive downstream assessment of water and aquatic ecosystems below and flowing north into the Slave and raised significant red flags. Our challenge now is to work with the territorial government, the federal government, and other interested parties. There are universities, there are NGOs that are interested in putting money into proper monitoring, increasing our capacity and we want to look at doing that.

We also have money in the budget to initiate our negotiation process now that we completed our Water Strategy, come up with the next plan which is to be able to move to the table with Alberta and B.C. and Saskatchewan to look at negotiating a bilateral agreement as a requirement of the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Agreement.

We also recognize, as well, that there is a growing number of issues in the Peel watershed. While we have a bilateral agreement there, it is somewhat dated and we are going to be looking at that to see if it is as effective, as we think it should be given all that we now know about water and the interest and concern about water.

Those are some of the plans for the future. We also have money in the budget within communities as well to continue to work through MACA and Public Works as well as ENR to make sure that, from the tap to the headwaters, we have the safest water possible. Thank you.