As I said earlier in response to the Member for Yellowknife North's question, the three northern Premiers were very concerned about the report of the Ministerial Special Representative of the Minister of Indigenous Affairs Canada. She was commissioned to consult with stakeholders and governments through the Arctic, and the terms of reference focused primarily on conservation.

When she met with the Premiers, we felt that the request for increased sustainable development was not reflected in the report. We felt that significant work had been done in developing conservation and protected areas. We have significant amounts of parks, and the focus of the report that they worked on was marine protected areas.

We felt it was important to have this Pan-Territorial Vision for Sustainable Development that we felt would balance the report which was going to be used as the centrepiece for the Arctic Policy Framework.