Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also sat on the committee; I was the parliamentary secretary. When I hear of fish habitat removed, the use of rivers for anglers gone, removing environmental assessment triggers, public notices gone, scientific reviews terminated, interference with the public right to navigation, it sounds like a Twilight Zone movie. I wasn't there for the meeting that said this and I didn't see any legislation that did. But the truth was and is that I went to every meeting, I heard from every witness, and I looked at the legislation thoroughly, as a lawyer for some 11 years litigating in the courts of Alberta.
That's another point. I'm from Alberta and I represent 30% of rural Alberta, places where people are impeded by this legislation on a constant basis. When I ran for this job in 2004, this was the number one concern. It wasn't BSE; it wasn't same-sex marriage; it was navigation and the ability to deal with things properly. I want to let you know that.
As well, I am a registered trapper, an avid hunter, and I have taught canoeing. I have canoed most of the rivers in northern Alberta and I taught canoeing for some period of time. I love canoeing and I love the outdoors, both winter and summer, and I would not ever put anything forward in any kind of legislation or proposal that would impede that in any way.
Saying that, primarily for my constituents, who vote me in at 67% every time I have an election, I want to ask a question, David, to clarify this. Will bridges, booms, dams, and causeways, which everyone here knows are the primarily named works, still be reviewed under the Navigable Waters Protection Act after the proposed amendments are passed? That is the main concern—those major works, those named works.