National Defence committee  I don't think there are tankers, but every ship has to have fuel to run, so any accident would be magnified, since the response time would take too long and would not be very....

National Defence committee  Yes. Many of our people still live not off the land but from the land and its resources: the animals, the game, and the fish. Any time there's an accident with the waters or the land, it's going to impact the wildlife. That's really close to the heart of what people feel up north.

National Defence committee  Exactly; that's the point I wanted to raise. Don't bring in farms, don't bring in the chickens and the sheep, but support those hunters who can provide for their families or support the tourism industry, for example.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Exactly.

National Defence committee  Exactly. In the Canadian Arctic, community development is economic development. We have a small population base with a large land base, so that's what it ends up being.

National Defence committee  Yes, it does with Inuit regions outside of Nunavik. Our municipality has sister communities, in Greenland as well as just outside Montreal. But there hasn't really been an economic impact from those.

National Defence committee  Most certainly it should. If those types of ships are going through the Arctic, that could be one of the mitigation measures. Maybe we should be more worried about the nuclear ships, but we're even worried about oil tankers—any ship. If there's an accident of any kind, oil is going to spread and destroy some habitat.

National Defence committee  Most of the infrastructure in the north comes from the Quebec government and the federal government. We have the airports. Kuujjuaq Airport is a federal airport.

National Defence committee  Not renovated. A new building was recently built. Kuujjuaq Airport is the transportation hub for the region and provides other services to Nunavut as well.

National Defence committee  I haven't really thought of it in those terms, but from what we're hearing from Minister Strahl, they'd like us, Makivik Corporation in the northern region, to provide contributions toward the housing. We had a meeting very recently on this issue. We're open to that. We're looking at that aspect of it.

National Defence committee  Eco-tourism and the outfitting camps provide a lot of money, not just for our region but for Quebec. I believe about $11 million is injected into the province of Quebec just from that alone, from outfitting hunters coming from the States to go caribou hunting or fishing.

National Defence committee  I'd like to give you an example of what happened in the 1950s in the Canadian Arctic. The Canadian government had a policy of trying to make Inuit into farmers. I'm not sure you're aware of this, but there were a whole lot of sheep and chickens brought up north, and we had some Inuit who tended to these chickens and sheep.

National Defence committee  I'm not 100% certain on that one. This is a file our president, Pita Aatami, usually keeps close to his heart and it's a very important issue—

National Defence committee  Yes. It's a very important issue for the whole region too. There has been some announcement, but I believe it's a renewal of the regular housing program like the Quebec government provides.