Mr. Speaker, the member will know, because she is the vice-chair of the environment committee, that immediately upon learning of the bill I was in touch. It happens to be a very significant issue for the Arctic environment.
We wrote to the Government of Russia to see if we could be of assistance. The initial offer was declined. However we did receive contact via the United Nations last week that the Russians are interested in having international expertise. A ten person team including two Canadians are leaving today to go to the oil spill site to see if we might be of assistance to prevent potential devastation in the virgin Arctic.