Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Sault Ste. Marie has really hit the issue exactly in terms of the seriousness of this whole matter.
We are talking about the possibility of foreign material, parasites, alien species that are found in the system around Devils Lake and in Devils Lake coming into a very large Canadian ecosystem that may not be able to tolerate or adapt to those foreign species or parasitic creatures.
It is a very serious situation. We all know what happened with zebra mussels. When they came in, apparently on the bottom of boats from Florida, to the Whiteshell in Manitoba they then spread from lake to lake as the boats moved.
The trouble with this is that we do not know just how serious it can be, which is why we absolutely need to take action tonight. It is very disturbing to think that for two years this commitment has been on the table and no action has been taken.
Where has the government been over the last year or more? Has our Prime Minister picked up the phone and talked to George Bush about getting that filter system in place? Has the Minister of the Environment picked up the phone and said to the governor of North Dakota and said, “This is absolutely unacceptable. As neighbour to neighbour, we expect you to operate in good faith. You cannot simply turn on the tap and contaminate our water system”. That is not acceptable in any notion of a civilized society.
We expect from the government tonight some very clear steps, some actions that will show Canadians that the government is no slouch when it comes to the United States of America. Good relations means it is able to stand up and be counted and we expect, when it comes to something as precious as our ecosystem and our environment, that it will do just that.