Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say that I'm glad to see Mr. Latourelle here. I had a wonderful working relationship with him when I was the parliamentary secretary.
I have a comment and then I'm going to ask a question. If the 13 dark years were so dark, I'm very proud of those 13 dark years, because according to the government, we had the most aggressive plan of the G-8 in 2005 and the greenest budget in history, which was $10 billion. I haven't seen that replicated by this government.
In 2007 the UN estimated that all humanitarian aid, except for one, was climate related. We have famines; we see rising sea levels and the displacement of millions of people because of a shortage of fresh water. In fact, we may see environmental migrants by 2020.
My question to you is, with regard to the north--and certainly the Northwest Passage, which could be open all year round--what work is your department doing on the issue of climate change, national security, and energy dependency with regard to other departments? Under the leadership of the former Minister of the Environment, Mr. Dion, we were able to work collaboratively with the Ministry of Finance in order to get the greenest budget in history.
Obviously, given the situation, the Ministry of the Environment has to play a critical role in dealing with issues in the north, particularly on the issue of national security, which is becoming extremely important. The Americans and the British already have strategies in place, and I'd be interested in your comments as to what collaborative work, if any, is currently going on in your department with those colleagues.