Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
I have been very concerned with the protection of the natural environment in this province for probably the last three decades. On a number of occasions I have been concerned with environmental assessments. That process is under Canadian law, and we're hoping that it is there for Canadian people, not just companies but individual people. Government should be concerned with the millions of individual Canadians and their rights, and the rights of the environment in the country we live in.
I don't know a great deal about the details of this TPP. I do know that NAFTA permitted challenges, as in Digby Neck and the quarry there that was proposed by Bilcon, an American company, I believe. They wanted to have a quarry and a port and to send ships through the Bay of Fundy. The environmental assessment process worked when the people who lived there objected, but now the company is coming back with a NAFTA challenge. They want $101 million American dollars from the Government of Canada.
This is all very fine. Big companies can afford to bring challenges to court. What about the people? If the quarry were to go ahead, if the company were to win the NAFTA challenge, would the people be compensated for the quality of life they have lost? Would they receive several hundred thousand dollars each for the loss of their property value? What about the whales in the Bay of Fundy? How will you be able to compensate them?