Madam Speaker, I fully agree with the hon. member and I thank him for his comments.
Of course, we could develop tidal energy in those regions where there is no ice, as in the gulf during the winter. The ice forms a little more upstream. So, it would be possible to build windmills on platforms, including around Anticosti Island and in that area, because this is where the winds are strongest.
Just like we had offshore oil-drilling rigs, we could set up windmills on platforms, right where the winds are strongest. This is a technology that we could develop, because it is currently not being developed elsewhere in the world.
I want to tell the hon. member what wind energy represents in terms of jobs. In Europe, it is expected that, by the year 2010, there will be 960,000 jobs that will depend on wind energy. Imagine what we could create by investing here, by having a true program to develop wind energy. In 1996, there were 72,000 jobs related to wind energy in Europe. By the year 2000, 512,000 jobs related to wind energy had been created.
Imagine if the government had invested anything like the $6 billion that was invested in atomic energy, a form of energy that we know we have to leave behind Certainly we cannot manage its waste.
Even if some may claim that it is a clean form of energy that does not release greenhouse gases, the fact is that nuclear waste is a source of problems and will remain so until we develop an adequate technology to process this waste.
But we do not have this technology. Therefore, what is the point of spending money to develop nuclear energy, to continue to develop this type of energy? It is pointless. It will only create additional environmental problems when the time comes to process the waste.
Wind energy, on the other hand, does not produce waste. We should invest more in this type of energy and, as the hon. member suggested, in tidal energy.