Being from the prairie provinces, I don't have a lot of understanding of the maritime issues. In Yukon, we have to rely on our access to American coasts, for example, right now the harbour at Skagway, to get minerals out. Those conversations are tied mostly to terrestrial issues. The biggest conversations I have with Alaskan counterparts—and certainly I've been here only a short time and I don't have that many conversations—are with the universities. We talk a lot about the need to connect experts, highly qualified people, across the north, and how doing that should not be bound by international boundaries or laws. That would be the one place where I'd say the conversation happens at the universities, around just being able to move scientists and faculty and researchers around the world as easily as possible. But I'm sorry, I don't have many other conversations about the lower 48.
On December 11th, 2012. See this statement in context.