Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back in 1997 there was a transboundary master agreement signed between a number of jurisdictions: the federal government, the territorial government, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon. One of the conditions in that agreement was that there were supposed to be bilaterals negotiated between all of the jurisdictions. We are hard at work and very close to completing our negotiations with Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.

The only bilateral that exists is the one between us and the Yukon government, and I’ve been in recent discussions with the Minister of Yukon about the need to update and modernize that bilateral agreement. That whole agreement is focused on integrated watershed management; in this case, where the Peel is. So we’re working with the Yukon government to make sure that we have the proper agreements in place. We’ve indicated and asked the Minister from the Yukon that we should call a meeting to review this bilateral arrangement. We’ve suggested that this meeting take place in Fort McPherson. The first choice of the Yukon government would be to modernize the agreement.

So in that regard, we are very concerned and involved in things that are happening in the Peel. We have staff up there that are involved on a day-to-day basis. So we are paying very close attention across the territory to issues with water in all of the basins and sub-basins. Thank you.