Mr. Speaker, we are not here to argue about the science or the importance of the Boundary Waters Treaty. We all understand that.
On our side of the House and I think everybody in my riding who is going to be detrimentally affected by this decision in North Dakota if it unilaterally decides to turn on the switch and start pumping water, we want to know what plan is there in place? We need to know what we are doing right now today in our negotiations with the U.S. state department. Where are we at with Secretary Condoleezza Rice in ensuring we get the referral from the U.S. to go ahead to the International Joint Commission.
We need to know if that fails, if the Americans for whatever political purposes internally decide not to make that reference to the IJC, what is our next step?