National Defence committee  No. Hunters know they have to inform someone of the time they should be returning from the land. If there's a weather issue they might return a day later, maybe two days later. If it's not weather-related, it becomes pretty easy to tell if there's some type of emergency.

National Defence committee  It's still the government. It could be good, I guess. I didn't really think of it in terms of that. We probably have better contact with INAC than we do with the Department of National Defence.

National Defence committee  There have been studies done on deep-sea ports before. We would need one, but it wouldn't be more than that in our region of Nunavik.

National Defence committee  We're on the mainland, the mainland being Canada. We're not on an island. A deep-sea port with a road system to that deep-sea port would be very beneficial, I believe, for economic opportunities for the north and the south.

National Defence committee  May I add a little bit to that, to the hydrographic charts? As you said, only about 20% of the Arctic waters are charted. It's really difficult for the cruise ships to enter certain areas, especially when the waters are not charted. Even though there's a huge cliff here and another one there and it must be thousands of feet deep in there, they can't enter that harbour because it's uncharted.

National Defence committee  There is a whole slew of things that have to happen before CFB Trenton can authorize a search and rescue, including how long the person's been away from home or has not returned from hunting. The police in the region have to be notified and then a few things have to happen before CFB Trenton is authorized to go ahead with it.

National Defence committee  With Quebec--

National Defence committee  I am not quite sure how to answer that.

National Defence committee  I believe so. I did see some correspondence. I believe it was one of the ministers, or Premier Charest, who said he would bring it up...or he did bring it up, with Minister Strahl, I believe. I am not quite sure. There was some stuff about a year and a half ago.

National Defence committee  Yes, there was.

National Defence committee  I think a lot of it stems from the name of our region being so close to the name of Nunavut. Maybe people in elected positions think it's the same thing, that Nunavut encompasses the whole north. That's what I suspect. But our territory is called Nunavik, with a v-i-k at the end.

National Defence committee  Exactly. I'm just looking at that map. The islands that Mr. Bachand referred to are way below the 55th parallel, just to the left of Nunavik. From the government there, I don't know if you have received a reasonable explanation. The main one is that we're in the province of Quebec, and when you paint the province of Quebec a different colour from say Newfoundland or Ontario, it includes Nunavik.

National Defence committee  You have my vote. I don't think there is, except that we're in the province of Quebec.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Bachand. I guess my presentation wasn't that clear. Thank you for the question. It's very enlightening, I think, for the members of the committee. Nunavik is situated north of the 55th parallel. All of our communities, the 14 communities, are north of the 55th parallel.

National Defence committee  Okay.