Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the comments about this bill by my colleague from the Bloc Quebecois. As he indicated, Bill C-38 does establish the boundaries for a new national park in the Northwest Territories. Last night the critic for parks from the official opposition, my colleague for Saskatoon—Humboldt, spoke at some length about this legislation.
I had the opportunity to raise a similar issue out of concern for the Porcupine caribou herd. This is another herd of caribou in the far north that happens to be in the western end of Yukon and its calving grounds overlap into Alaska. I raised that issue on September 29, 1995. I think it is quite appropriate that the government has moved to protect the Bluenose herd east of Inuvik.
The Reform Party is supporting this legislation. Comments from the Bloc member indicate his party is supporting this legislation which is moving very quickly through the process so the very fragile environment up north can be protected.
One of the concerns I have is to achieve a balance between the economic interests of the nation with protecting the environment and specific species of plant and animal life. This is especially relevant in the far north where those conditions are very fragile.
I am reminded of a couple of recent events in northern British Columbia. One was when the B.C. government moved to establish a provincial park in an area known as Tatshenshini-Alsek region in the northwestern corner of British Columbia. There was a projected $1 billion mine that was going to go into that region. That ultimately was cancelled once that region was turned into a park.
In the background research for this park in the Northwest Territories some exploration rights had been granted earlier in error to a company called Darnley Bay Resources. Fortunately it did relinquish its exploration rights for that part that was included in the park.
Does the hon. member believe that there is a necessity to achieve a balance to include all the stakeholders, the industry and the people who derive their livelihood from the land, whether it be trappers or hunters or tourists, to ensure that it is not only in the best interests of the environment of the country but so we can achieve that balance between environmental protection and the protection of our economy?