Mr. Speaker, I was environment critic for a very long time. I am very familiar with the issue of nuclear waste.
This debate has been ongoing in the House for a number of years. I see here some colleagues who sat with me on the Standing Committee on the Environment in those days.
One cannot speak from both sides of one's mouth when talking about nuclear waste. However, this is what is happening in the House of Commons.
I remember travelling with the Standing Committee on the Environment to Washington and New York, among others. We met with parliamentarians there and we told them, “We have to talk about nuclear weapons, because we are headed that way”. I remember we were soundly rebuffed. We were told to mind our own business and that this was none of our business.
However, we are selling Candu reactors and we are taking dangerous political steps with regard to the nuclear industry. There is now talk of storing nuclear waste here in Canada.
I will put a question to my colleague, who might have more information than I do since I stopped being environment critic a while ago. Needless to say, I am still very interested in the issue.
A few years ago, there was no study to indicate that storing nuclear waste had no harmful mid or long term effect on the environment.
I would like my colleague to give me further details in this regard. Have there been recent studies? At athe time, the Standing Committee on the Environment had asked whether there was really no danger in storing nuclear waste here.
Can Canada really afford to take in nuclear waste from other countries and bury it in the Canadian Shield? Perhaps there has been studies on this recently. I am putting this question to my colleague.