I would love to think that in two hours our committee could gain a grasp of the economic consequences of the proposed mine and the environmental significance, the sacredness to the aboriginal people, the species of fish involved, and the longevity of whatever fishery happens to occur in this body of water. I'd love to know what the different fisheries people have said about it, the environmental assessors at the federal and provincial levels, and to ask all the questions we need to ask after hearing the testimony from all the witnesses that we ought to hear from. But to hear only a little bit of the story strikes me as doing way more harm than good.
If we're going to do this, I'd say we go back to the steering committee and set aside all of the plans that have been made. If we're going to do this, we have to do this, but we can't do it a little bit. It just strikes me as irresponsible to hear a tiny bit of one side of a many-faceted story.
As I said earlier, I consider Fin to be a reasonable man, and I think this is an incredibly interesting issue, but for us to dedicate the resources we need to understand it would require a huge investment of time. There's an asymmetry involved between the resources required and the effect we might have on something that's in the hands of cabinet. Fisheries is only one small part.
So I just don't see why we would embark down this Lambeth Walk so late in this stage.