Mr. Speaker, in his speech on Bill C-29, the hon. member for Don Valley-West said the new parks agency would have a higher level of administrative authority and more power to manage the environment in a national park.
Could we have a commitment from him that we will never again see what we are witnessing in Alberta, where there is a beautiful national park threatened by the opening of a mine nearby? It would appear that nothing can be done to prevent this from happening even though this mine is sure to cause serious damage to this park established many decades ago.
Within the higher level of authority given to the new parks agency, would it be possible to plan for this kind of situation and include provisions allowing the board of directors of a park and the new agency to take control of the park and, if need be, to expropriate and enlarge the park so that hundreds of millions of dollars in investments would not be lost because of so-called progress?