I'd like to ask the negotiators if they live in Canada or on this planet, because they're going to have to breathe the air they pollute.
My sister used to live in Alberta at Miquelon Lake, right next to a nature reserve. She had to drive 20 minutes to get her water in 20-gallon jugs. Thirteen of her dogs died of cancer. She eventually moved to Saskatchewan. Alberta will not release its cancer figures to any other government, let alone private people who want that kind of information. Just think of the soup that is there.
I spoke to Philippe Couillard, who worked briefly for SECOR Conseil, where I was a translator. I made some of these points to him. There was the Plan Nord. Part of it was development generally across Quebec, and gas development in the St. Lawrence valley, where there are often thermal inversions. The gas from shale is very dry and has none of the extra—let's say—oils and higher volatiles that bring in extra money. It was pretty much a stripped gas, very dry, and not very profitable. The way it was arranged, most of the profits would go elsewhere, but the pollution would stay here. Just the fracking we felt from Contrecoeur slammed our building in Montreal a few months ago.
If, through this agreement, we allow other corporations to come here and pollute here, we're going to have to breathe that pollution. Just as we're still cleaning up nuclear waste from 60 years ago in the north from the NORAD agreement, we'll still be cleaning up the lake in B.C. The gold mine makes as much money as tourism, but the gold mine can kill tourism. Tourism will never kill the gold mine.
Think of all these consequences you're going to have to live with. The other thing is that the taxpayer is on the hook for everything.