Just to concur with that, when we initially put this to design, it wasn't any intrusion on any area or lake or park or designated spot within a province or any other territory or jurisdiction. It was to allow the government to identify what was actually going on and to help better identify what's happening in particularly sensitive areas.
The areas most commonly referred to are the far north and the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence region. By population and pollution impact, they have been the places where we have been most lacking in terms of information and research. I think there's something significant when a population realizes this and such areas have been identified as areas of concern. If the science tells us that, which it is doing particularly in the far north right now—that's the one I'm focused on—then there clearly needs to be a greater call to research and understand the problem, particularly to get at the source point of the problem or where it's coming from.
We have to remind committee members that a lot of this pollution not only doesn't know provincial jurisdictions, it doesn't know national boundaries either. The effect is happening in these places in particular.
When we talk about climate change...I would invite all committee members to come and visit what a forest looks like when a beetle has gone through it. It's something to see, and it's important to the people of that region. I can tell you for certain that to have some acknowledgement of that, and to then have assistance with the research component at the very least in order to overcome the problem they're facing....
An imbalance is what typically happens with this type of cause and effect. We've seen this in Africa. That's where the greatest effect will be happening in terms of economic punishment and climate change. We've also seen it in the far north. Ironically, both regions have the least political clout, if you will.
Neither the government's amendment nor the original one the NDP put forward says the government can come in and start to tell the provinces what they must and must not do. This provides a focus and says there must be greater research put into a particular area because it is an area of greater sensitivity. That's acknowledged by the science, not by the politics. At the end of the day, that's what is most important about this particular issue. As often as we can, we should not allow just the politicians to make decisions as to what areas are going to get funding or which ones get attention. We must allow the scientists to say that these are the areas of greatest concern and we should direct attention and research and funding in those directions.