Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the minister for being here.
My wife was at the Dempster Highway when John Diefenbaker announced the roads to resources program. It was then that Canadians first started to notice the north. Then it was forgotten for a while. It's great to see it back on the table again.
One of the challenges, though, was that as the area was opened up, those who went in to do oil drilling and what not in the Eagle Plains area in the Yukon did not necessarily follow good environmental practices. There were oil drums all over the tundra, and other things like that. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the Conservative government came in and spent millions of dollars cleaning it up.
I am really glad to hear, Mr. Minister, that we are focusing on the environment and that as we develop the north and encourage that development and our sovereignty there, we are making sure we put environmental protection at the forefront. That's really good news.
One of the questions I have relates to the size of the area. It's a big area. I recall flying from Herschel Island to Old Crow in the Yukon, flying over a river where the Americans had come across into the Yukon and were mining on a creek. They weren't discovered for two years because there weren't proper patrols. Mr. Roussel mentioned there were going to be 100 people and airplanes patrolling, but it's a big area.
Can you give us an idea of what you think the future of that will be?