Mr. Speaker, the government is very concerned about this unilateral action by North Dakota. That is why in April of last year we formerly approached the United States to make the outlet the subject of a joint reference to the International Joint Commission.
Tomorrow, the Prime Minister and I intend to raise the issue with President Bush and Secretary Rice. We will remind them that it is in the interest of the United States just as much as it is in Canada's interest to take a responsible attitude to protect our precious transboundary water resource projects, such as the Devils Lake outlet. They must be fully assessed before they are implemented.