Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for being here.
I'm a very practical person. I like what the professor just said. Mr. Garnett comes from an area of Canada that I came from, where you do what you're told. I was a policeman and he was in the armed forces, so we do what we're told and we manage the budgets we're given.
I truly believe that you either use it or you lose it. We have something very precious in this country called the Arctic, and as you rightly pointed out, Mr. Roussel, if we're not there doing something, while other countries may not claim part of Canada as their country, they will say we don't have any business telling them whether or not they can put their ships or whatever through, or whether they can drill for resources. You begin to lose your control if you don't use it.
Using it, we're not going to be able to move massive parts of our population there, but the tiny example I use for high school students is the fact that 20 years ago Canada produced zero diamonds or just about, and today we're one of the world's largest producers of gem and industrial-quality diamonds, most of which come from the north. We know the north is probably very rich in natural resources.
Wouldn't you say that it is in our national interest and public opinion would be positive towards it, and one of the ways is to begin to seriously look at the use of our God-given resources in the north and use our Canadian military with their experience in operating in a harsh atmosphere? Perhaps we could start with a few comments on that from Mr. Bercuson and Mr. Garnett, and then have Mr. Roussel finish off. Use it or lose it. Should we be speeding up our exploitation of natural resources?