Thank you.
Mr. Chair, we have made investments to support renewable energy in the north. I think of Yukon as well as the Northwest Territories. Through the Arctic Council chairmanship we also established the Arctic Economic Council, a signature initiative of our chairmanship that will allow Arctic nations to collaborate in a number of opportunities in developing alternative energy in the north. That is led by a number of aboriginal groups, as well as private industry, to allow Arctic nations to collaborate and to share information on alternative energies to diesel in Canada's Arctic.
I launched that in September and it's now functional. One of the priority initiatives of the Arctic Economic Council is to collaborate in exploring alternative energies that can be produced in the Arctic, that work in the Arctic. I'm looking forward to the outcome of that.
Part of developing this sector in the north is that we have to do research, we have to invest in research that supports alternatives to diesel. That is an issue that is a priority for us. That's why we have put $10 billion into alternative energy. But research, of course, is required to produce these technologies in the north, and that's what we're committed to doing.