Mr. Speaker, yesterday I met with the Minister of the Environment to alert her that
Fermi II, a U.S. nuclear power plant, planned to pump 1.5 million U.S. gallons of radioactive water into Lake Erie.
Plant officials and the U.S. government nuclear regulatory commission insist that this water is only slightly radioactive and well below legal limits.
I want to assure the residents of Essex-Windsor that the Minister of the Environment instructed her Ontario regional officials to conduct on-site field testing at Fermi II before the water was released to ensure that the levels of radiation are within legal standards and no other contaminants are present. Those tests are currently under way.
I am very concerned and so are the citizens of Essex-Windsor. Lake Erie is a shared body of water and the Canadian public has a right to be informed of potential threats to our drinking water. The levels of radiation may very well be within legal and even within Canadian standards, but Canada should be given ample public warning of such releases.