My comments will be brief.
Really, all I want to do is reassure you, Mr. McSweeney, because you seemed to be a little concerned about the cleanup in Sydney. You talk about your project being studied? You're only a piker when it comes to the Sydney tar ponds. You guys have the study starter-kit when you talk about the Sydney tar ponds. It's been studied and overstudied and gone through so many....
Know this, though: going forward with what the government announced, I thought it was a kick in the teeth that they said nothing had been done for 13 years. That community has given its soul towards the cleanup, through the joint action group and the processes after that. They've popped their guts out, and they are very comfortable and confident with this cleanup process.
I commend the government for following the recommendations that were put forward by the full panel review that nobody else wanted. Stéphane Dion called that full panel review, it was done, and the recommendations came forward.
Now, for Elizabeth May to say that they're sprinkling fairy dust.... That's a pretty good quote from her. I think maybe she was sprinkled with fairy dust, because the technologies she's been putting forward have all failed.
On soil washing, there's a residue with soil washing. What are you going to do with the residue? You're going to have to burn it, and those things will be emitted into the atmosphere as well.
The people of Cape Breton are ready for this cleanup technology and for what's going forward. They're comfortable with this. Let's get on with it.
As far as the big concrete block, I've seen remediated sites before. When we look at Moncton, a fourplex arena, ball fields, and soccer fields are all over the former CN rail yard.
Sydney will come to terms with that and there will be something productive there. We're turning the page as a community. It's easy to look over the fence and say we could have done this or we could have done that. But through the process that's going forward, we'll have a great community, a big blight in the middle of our community will be cleaned up, and we'll go forward.
So I just wanted to put your mind at ease.