Mr. Speaker, I listened to what my colleague had to say with great interest. However, I totally disagree with him when he compares lead to manganese.
I began to study nursing forty years ago, in a pediatric hospital. Forty years, that is quite a long time ago. There were no anti-pollution systems at that time. Forty years ago,children were being admitted to hospitals with lead induced encephalitis. Therefore, lead toxicity was already a recognized phenomenon.
As far as manganese is concerned, at present there is no evidence to show that it poses any threat to public health. Granted, all of the heavy metals are dangerous. Copper is dangerous, but we have some in our system. If we had to remove everything that is dangerous, there would be nobody left on the planet.
The arguments made by my colleague to the effect that plant workers are convinced that the anti-pollution systems are greatly affected by manganese in fuel, are something that I can understand, coming from these workers, but we must also look at rulings, especially by U.S. courts, to the effect that this has nothing to do with deterioration of anti-pollution systems.
Everybody looks to his own interests. In itself, that is not surprising. But I do not think that we should use the excuse of public health to support the interests of powerful lobbyists. I believe that the role of a government whether federal or provincial, is to look after the well-being of its citizens, all of them, and not to privilege one group in particular.