Thank you, Mr. Chair. Taking all of the comments that we got from the Auditor General, I think, again, we accepted all of those recommendations. One of the things, unfortunately, that the Auditor General couldn't speak on was any documents that were currently in the queue.

When we look at what we developed for our action plan for the Climate Change Strategic Framework, I think that we have a very robust plan that is going to be able to be shepherded through, within government, a lot of interdepartmental committees that we are going to have, a lot of reflection on what all of the various departments are able to do in the climate change portfolio.

Really, as we look at that, we also have to see how it relates to other new initiatives that are coming in, like the knowledge economy or the implementation of the knowledge agenda and how that is incorporated into climate change. I can reassure the committee that we have a number of interdepartmental committees within the bureaucracy that deal at the director level, at the ADM level, at the deputy minister level, and also at the ministerial level, where we are looking at all of the climate change impacts of what is going on in the North. I think a big part of that, as well, is really understanding that we don't have any magic bullet for climate change. We just have to approach it and really look at a real accounting of what everybody is doing. That is really in part one of our climate change action plan. I think that there are 100 different actions that are identified within that action plan for part one. In part two, there are another 50 actions that are identified within the action plan.

Again, I really look forward to being able to roll that out. I think that we are just about there, and it should be done this spring where we would have that rolled out. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, as we went through the initial reduction exercise within the department, the wording again was community-based monitoring. That title has stayed in there, but going through the functional and the operational review, we reviewed the activities and what should actually be taken out for the $375,000. That was the initial rationale for that allotment. The reality of it is that these alternative reductions identified have minimal negative impact on the departmental operations.

What we have, and I will take you through, is a series of five of them that get to that reduction. There are four within water management and monitoring, and the fifth reduction is environmental stewardship and climate change.

The $150,000 from the first one is $150,000 from water management and monitoring. This is from our grants and contributions, and it is a reduction in our contribution agreement to Mackenzie DataStream. This system is up and running now, and therefore, it no longer requires the funding that has been allocated to it. That is why we deemed it as part one of this reduction.

The second part is an $85,000 reduction in, again, water management and monitoring. This is on water research studies, and it is a reduction in contracts for data interpretations and review of water quality and quantity testing services. By using contractors, we are able to now have people in-house who are able to do this work. Again, these services will be conducted internally to promote program efficiencies.

The third one is a $75,000 reduction in environmental stewardship and climate change. This is a reduction in the contracts for updates on the information of various environmental portals and travel for meetings. One of the things that we invested in last year was video conferencing in the department. We do a lot of meetings now with our trans-boundary partners via video conferencing versus actually having to fly into the various jurisdictions.

In terms of the fourth, again, $50,000 in water management and monitoring. This is in water partnerships and agreement. Again, this is a reduction in travel. This section will utilize, again, the video conferencing equipment for negotiations in trans-boundary.

Finally, the last one of $15,000 is in water management and monitoring in water research and studies. This is a reduction in travel, and this is basically for the essential meetings and conference attendances that will be maintained. It is just being a little more particular to the conferences and meetings that we are sponsoring staff to go to. Thank you, Mr. Chair.