Mr. Chair, my colleague's question is well-informed. He is quite correct. I have a great fondness in my heart for Lake Winnipeg, having grown up spending countless summer nights on that lake. It is dear to many people in the prairie provinces. However, it is important to note as well that the Lake Winnipeg basin's watershed exceeds over one million square kilometres. As my colleague mentioned, it also incorporates part of the northern U.S. states.
Therefore, it is particularly important that we continue the work we do as a government to monitor water quality in the major rivers that contribute nutrients to Lake Winnipeg, including the Red, Pembina and Saskatchewan Rivers. As has been mentioned already tonight, we are also monitoring for biological effects and changes along the southern shoreline of the lake and following nutrient transport from distributed sources.
The one thing I want to highlight in my colleague's comments is the ongoing partnership that our government has with local conservation groups, local research teams and industry groups to get to a point where we have policy in place that balances that need to use the landscape to produce agriculture with that environmental protection component. Our investments into this area are so important and vital. As a former Manitoban, this is really important to the people of that province and the watershed basin. We hope we will continue with those measures well into the future.