That is a very good question, Ms. Pauzé.
At Réseau Environnement, we have worked with the Canadian Coalition for Healthy Waters and the Coalition québécoise pour des eaux saines. We believe it was important that this agency be created and that we be able to get on with the job. We participated in its creation by providing it with all our comments.
Before the Agency was set up, there was chaos, and it was difficult for the members of our network to work with more than 17 departments and agencies on the subject of water.
One of the problems we had to deal with was this. At the moment, we are working on the freshwater study. We believe that water, whether freshwater or saltwater, knows no borders.
The study is critical for our St. Lawrence River and estuary. Why? Because, at present, we are evaluating the volume of total nitrogen in freshwater.
Total nitrogen does not have a major impact on our freshwater. However, our estuary, and our famous Matane shrimp, are threatened, and, if the trend continues, we will have none left in a few decades.