Mr. Speaker, the fate of the Winnipeg's Freshwater Institute and the environmental lakes area hangs in the balance. Manitobans, northwest Ontarians and the international scientific community are waiting to see if the Liberal government is so lacking in vision that it will actually follow through with its plan to destroy one of the jewels of Canadian science and environmental research.
The world renowned institute first established the environmental hazards of phosphates and detergents and its experimental lake program was a key player in research on acid rain.
Honoured by the international scientific community for these accomplishments, scientists at the institute are now being trashed by their own government. They are facing unbelievable cuts of 70 per cent of their budget, cuts so deep that they will effectively kill the institute. The rumoured promise of a small reduction in the cuts would do little to save the integrity of the work done there.
The NDP calls on the government to back away from this self-inflicted wound to the Canadian environment, Canadian science and Canada's international reputation and save the Freshwater Institute.