Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the minister on her announcement today. Irving Whale has been a ticking environmental time bomb since it sank in 1970 and another Liberal administration allowed it to remain there.
Nevertheless, the minister should be congratulated for this action. At the same time she should be condemned for her inaction on another issue in the gulf area, namely, the proposed pumping of waste water from Scott Maritimes Limited pulp and paper plant two kilometres into Northumberland Strait.
Nearly 30 years ago area residents were told the treatment system for effluent from the Scott Maritimes mill would result in water suitable for swimming or even drinking. The results today include a dead, stinky lagoon and area fishermen say a mile long area of dead bottom near Powell's Point where no plankton grow and no fish swim.
Nova Scotia's current proposal for remedying this situation includes a $17 million upgrade of the effluent treatment system which it operates, the bypassing of the existing stabilization lagoon and extending the effluent pipeline two kilometres into the Northumberland Strait.
In a letter to you, minister, dated November 8, 1993, to which you have not replied, Mary J. Gorman and Percy Hayne Jr. informed you that fishermen were fed up-