Having judges decide what a healthy and ecologically balanced environment is will be extremely difficult, because the concept itself is somewhat meaningless. There's no such thing as balance of nature.
The Ottawa River, which flows through this town, is that in balance or is it not? It has dams; it has all kinds of human development around it. Balance is clearly in the eye of the beholder.
To have the essence of the bill, which is the right to a healthy and balanced environment, not be clearly defined simply because it cannot be defined, which would be the basis of the bill, makes the whole thing problematic.
I will reiterate and I will defend the point that it's rural communities that will bear the brunt of this. I would remind Ms. Duncan that she doesn't represent a rural constituency. I do. My constituents are involved with logging, mining, agriculture, trapping, and forestry. When one looks at the environmental issues in this country and the environmental fights, the targets of all environmental activism, almost bar none, are rural resource industries. It's rural communities that will bear the brunt of this particular bill, and I stand by that.