The concern that was expressed by the toxicologist who appeared before committee was that many of the companies the government hired and the companies that typically work in this space are hired to assess away the risk, to scope their studies in such a way that the outcome of the study would show minimal risk, because minimal risk comes with minimal obligation to clean it up. Do you see what I mean?
This seems like one of the central problems with this approach of hiring certain consultants and scoping studies in certain ways and having this hands-off approach of “Do your thing and tell us if there's a risk to human health.” I'm just trying to characterize what we've heard from the independent toxicologist.
More concerning is that the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation contacted the Prime Minister's Office, Indigenous Services Canada, DFO and Emergency Preparedness in over 30 emails and phone calls about dredging. This is the community's sole access point for evacuation, and they're unable to use this transportation infrastructure. They were making all these calls, and they got absolute radio silence in response. It wasn't until they went to the media and rang the alarm bells that all of a sudden the government started scrambling, and it was like, “Oh, crap; we have to manage this situation.”
How is the committee meant to understand that all throughout the summer these first nations are trying to get hold of you to talk about this critical transportation infrastructure, but they get absolutely nothing back? What does that say?