Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's great to have the minister with us again today. Thank you for joining us.
I wanted to pick up a little bit on what Mr. Sopuck was touching on, and that's really the results-oriented aspects of the work we've been doing. Mr. Sopuck actually referenced the habitat stewardship program announcement that was made last week, and there's a component of that announcement that was also going to the Lake Winnipeg basin stewardship fund.
As I'm sure you're aware, as a Manitoba MP Lake Winnipeg is a very important area for me and for probably every Manitoban. We also realize it is a huge basin area. We focus on the lake, but I think we're really getting an understanding of the need. You touched on the wetlands aspect of it and how that affects it and touches on it. I'm concerned about the health and quality of Lake Winnipeg, and I'm also very happy to see some of the investments, and the budget 2012 with the $18 million investment for the second phase of the Lake Winnipeg basin initiative.
But I'd also like it if you could review for us the accomplishments we have seen in phase 1. Now we're into phase 2. You could touch on that also, but I'd especially like to really focus on some of the accomplishments in phase 1, and how we're going to be able to build on that going forward.