Mr. Speaker, reference has been made to the Magna Carta and the fact that some of us here do not speak the language of the time that document was written and so somehow that document itself is dated. The fact of the matter is that the hon. member across who referenced this is ignoring that the Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted the Magna Carta repeatedly since Confederation.
Earlier this afternoon I quoted the part of the ruling in the 1913 case of the Attorney General of British Columbia v. the Attorney General of Canada. The ruling stated in part:
It has been unquestioned law that since Magna Carta no exclusive fishery could be created by Royal grant in tidal waters and no public right of fishing, in such waters, then existing, can be taken away without competent legislation.
This past summer it was the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada who stated again quite emphatically that since the time of the Magna Carta there has been a public right to fish and that public right can only be removed by competent legislation. So we are not dreaming over here when we talk about that. We are talking about real issues and real concerns. They are concerns that have been addressed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
One of the other concerns we have, which I am sure my friend from North Island-Powell River will share, is delegation of authority for conservation issues. I referred to a study earlier this afternoon which noted that habitat degradation associated with logging, urbanization and hydro power development contributed to most of the 142 documented stock extinctions. It was referring to extinction of particular salmon runs.
We are concerned that what the government is doing in this bill is simply transferring the authority for conservation to the provincial government rather than addressing the question itself. It is obvious that whole area of concern has been neglected by the government, but rather than responding to it and trying to do something about it, the government is prepared to let the provincial government look after it.
I wonder if my friend from North Island-Powell River would care to give some examples of the inability of the provincial government to manage the habitat. Perhaps he could also address the fact that what we should be talking about are principles to manage habitat rather than simply getting rid of the problem.