Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I appreciate most of your point of view on the direction that's most likely to be a success in asserting Arctic sovereignty. However, there is one issue that is starting to percolate, and I want to get your opinion on it.
I had a chance last year to attend the parliamentary association meeting in Fairbanks, where I talked to the U.S. admiral in charge of the coast guard there. We talked about fishing, and he assured me that the only places they were concerned about fishing were the Bering Strait and the Tchouktches Sea. They were concerned that they were going to see some movement into that area.
In the spring of this year, the U.S. announced that they would impose a moratorium on fishing in the Arctic waters, including the Beaufort Sea, and of course including the disputed area with Canada. Our government protested, but to no avail. On August 27 the U.S. initiated that moratorium.
My question to you is this. In international relations between the U.S. and Canada, should we be concerned with the U.S. taking a move like this when there's no on-the-ground requirement to protect the fishing stock? Canada stood up and said that we don't like this, it's not appropriate in our waters, and yet the U.S. moved forward with this action. To me, it kind of fits with what we did with the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, where in Parliament last year we said that we want to pass this act because we want to extend our jurisdiction; we want to ensure, by taking environmental care of the waters, that it's clearly understood where our jurisdiction in the Arctic is.
Do you sense that there's something going on here, that there's movement on the part of the U.S. towards this very valuable piece of the territorial waters of Canada?