Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed in the Bloc member's argument. To use provincial versus federal technical arguments about jurisdiction with respect to an issue which involves the health of all Canadians strikes me as a very dangerous approach.
We are getting close to the end of the debate on this legislation which will effectively ban manganese in gasoline in Canada. I would remind the member opposite that manganese is a heavy metal. It gets into the environment. Once it is in the environment, in the ecosystem, it stays there.
The hon. member says that there are doubts. Very often in scientific studies it is difficult to prove something absolutely conclusively. If there are doubts about something that might be poisoning our children in the same way as years ago there were
doubts about lead, which was in gasoline, and how it affected us and our children, then we should err on the side of safety. Eventually it was proven that lead affects us and our children and legislation was passed, but that was after generations of young people had grown up and their brains had been affected by the lead. Use the precautionary principle and vote for this legislation.
I have spoken twice at some length in parts of this debate and I do not want to repeat all of those arguments. However, I rise now to point out to the member that in my riding of Peterborough we have many workers who work at the General Motors plants in Oshawa. They have come to me and explained very carefully the proven impact of manganese on the on-board emission control systems which are going into the modern vehicles they are producing and which they have to sell abroad competitively.
These automobiles are being produced with $2,000 or $3,000 worth of emission controls and we are filling them up with gasoline which has manganese in it. First of all, we damage these expensive items in our cars and then, because these systems control all the pollutants and not just manganese going into the environment, we damage the control systems. As a result we allow pollutants of all sorts which are in gasoline to get into the environment. This is not the case in the United States.
To the auto workers in my riding I would say this: The Canadian Automobile Association in my riding and nationally, which represents all the motorists in Canada, wants Bill C-29 to go through. The auto parts manufacturers, the people who make the computer-like emission control devices, want it to go through. That is in addition to all the people who are interested in the health of Canadians and to all of the people who are interested in the environment.
I would be most grateful if the member would search her heart and not use these technical, legal matters because of her position with respect to the separation of Quebec in an area which affects the health and environment of all Canadians.