Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will follow the example of John Weston, my colleague from West Vancouver, by trying to present my point of view in French.
I want to say that I support the motion presented by Mr. Fin Donnelly. It's something that the leader of the Liberal Party, Mr. Ignatieff, had already…
This morning, it's still too early to continue in French.
Mr. Ignatieff has already committed to a moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic for just the reason
that the protection is not quite reliable enough, that the experience in the Gulf of Mexico showed us that the methods of cleaning up pollution caused by oil haven't really changed in the past 10 years.
We haven't managed to move forward with better means and mechanisms to clean up the oil and to protect from this kind of blowout and spill. That became clear in the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
So in June Mr. Ignatieff committed to holding off on oil and gas exploration and activities in the Arctic until such time as we can be assured that the risks are negligible. We need to always keep in mind that if we were to have a disaster in the Arctic or on the north Pacific coast of British Columbia as serious as the one that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, or in Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez, we would never be able to go back. We will have changed our shoreline, our coast, our environment forever, and we will have changed Canada for the worse.
That risk is far too huge to take without being very cautious.
Developing natural resources is a Canadian right and privilege. It is important for our current and future economy. But it is important not to be in a hurry about it. It needs to be done gently and slowly to protect the environment and all the coastal jobs that depend on a healthy environment. Oil spills are very harmful to maintaining a region's jobs and sustainable economy. We are still witnessing this in the Gulf of Mexico and in Alaska. Jobs are being lost as we speak, and they can never be restored because of the water pollution and oil spills.
For all these reasons, I will support the motion.
Thank you.