Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I come from a mine-ravaged region where the damages that were done in terms of water, the damages that were done to the landscape and to human bodies, necessitated major changes. If you want to mine in Ontario, you have to have a plan to clean it up, and it's worked very well. It also has made sure that our mining industries remain very strong.
I'm always shocked that the oil industry in Alberta has been given a free pass to pollute. We see the horrific pollution in Fort Chip and the cancers there, the failure to address the huge ecological damage that's been done by abandoned wells and the fact that the federal government is supposed to pick up the tab. Ordinary citizens are being asked to pick up the tab for an industry that made $38 billion in profit in a single year and won't lift a finger to deal with these abandoned disaster zones. I think it's really important that we investigate this.
We know that money was given to the oil industry for cleanup. We've had a very questionable record of whether or not that money was spent properly. We need to have accountability. We need to have accountability from companies that are continuing to ask Canadians to bear the burden.
This summer Jasper burnt—one of our most iconic communities—what did we hear from Rich Kruger? It was that the sun was shining. Well, the sun wasn't shining on people in Jasper. The sun's not shining on people in North Carolina. The sun is shining on an industry that relies on the ability to pollute our planet and not pay, that relies on taxpayers to continually fund them when they're making record profits and they're not putting back. We have this disgrace of abandoned wells that have to be cleaned up. Once again, they're coming to the Canadian taxpayer, asking us to clean up the mess for an industry that has made staggering amounts of profit over the years.
It doesn't cut it to say, well, these are companies that no longer exist, and we don't know who they are. These are orphaned wells. That was an old tactic used by the mining industry for years. Junior mining companies or companies that were no longer profitable were getting sold off to a front company, and then the original owners of the property were walking away. However, that's no longer allowed and hasn't been allowed for decades, because we put serious rules in place to make sure that, if you are going to operate and exploit natural resources, particularly on public lands, you're going to put money into a trust to deal with that.
Unfortunately, we see that in the province of Alberta, the Alberta Energy Regulator is basically an extension of CAPP. They have been given...and able to get away with staggering levels of corporate malfeasance. Again, look at the leakage that came out of the tar sands tailings ponds that was covered up and they were not accountable for. People have gotten sick.
Certainly I would like to see someone like maybe Chief Allan Adam from Fort Chipewyan participate and give his perspective. I know it's beyond the issue of poisoned wells, but it's the issue of poisoned land.
We certainly support this. We think this is a very important study. You can count on the New Democrats to back up this motion.
Thank you.