Thank you very much.
I find myself again extending gratitude for someone's military service. I know you have also served in uniform. In particular, your knowledge and understanding of engineering has been of great benefit to all.
These initiatives are best described as legacy responsibilities of the Canadian Forces--remediation of various sites to which the Department of National Defence has assigned high priority. We have a program in place that is committed to conducting the type of environmental assessment and cleanup that most Canadians would expect. We have an established record as an environmental steward. The department is addressing a number of these environmental remediation cleanups across the country--problems that have been in place for some time.
I expect that with your experience you have had occasion to see some of the environmental challenges that exist across the country. The Department of National Defence is committed to ensuring that these contaminated sites--these hazardous waste sites, in some instances--are managed in a safe and prudent fashion.
Goose Bay in Labrador is one of the sites where we have undertaken a major remediation. Much of that exercise literally involves cleaning the soil as a result of spillage of old fuel and antifreeze—types of material that are very toxic in the soil. The department spent only half of its planned spending in the past calendar year in support of remediation on the former Mid-Canada Line radar sites in Ontario. So half of the entire budget allotted for remediation went to that project.
It is safe to say that much of the progress in this area is ongoing and will be for some years. These are not issues that are dealt with quickly in some cases, given the size and scope of the projects we're undertaking, but it is responsible on the part of our department and governments everywhere that we move on with addressing these challenges. The cost of not doing so is simply too high.
When we encounter the various environmental sites that we previously owned and where National Defence operated, we prioritize them. We rank them in terms of size, scope, and the urgency with which we have to address them. We have set aside a specific budget to get on with cleaning up these federally contaminated sites. It's part of a broader whole-of-government effort to deal with the aftermath of a different time when people simply did not view their responsibilities the way they do today.
So I think Canada and most Canadians would expect nothing less of the Department of National Defence than to do its part, and that's exactly what's happening.