Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I may help Mr. Lemay and try to finish up some of his questions.
It's obvious, Mr. Chair and witnesses, that our government has had a significant interest in northern development. Not only in the recent past, but there was the announcement made to extend the SINED funding, the northern economic development agency has been announced, and also, as has been referenced, the announcement for funding for off-site training for large machine operators. I think these are all key components to improving the lives of aboriginal people.
I was also pleased with the opening statement, when you referenced the need for improving infrastructure and the regulatory environment.
One of the questions that Mr. Lemay raised earlier was the issue of the garbage. An issue that I've raised before at this committee is the question of whether there have been any studies done to look at the viability of the conversion of solid waste to energy. We know there's a pilot project currently occurring here in Ottawa where they're converting solid waste to energy. It does two things: it gets rid of the environmental contamination and it also produces energy for the grid. Has there been any discussion about the possibility of that? I understand that the volume of garbage may not be sufficient to bring one of these systems onstream, but as technology improves, it would seem to me that maybe there would be modular components that could really address this issue for the north.