Mr. Speaker, very briefly, I would like to talk about the federal government's right to do environmental assessments on Canadian territory in general.
In fact, my colleague from Rosemont—Petite-Patrie, whom I much admire because of his dedication to the environmental cause and who is in fact a friend, disagrees with me on this subject. However, I would like to remind him first of all that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the federal government has a fundamental right to act in the matter of environmental assessment in cases under its jurisdiction. Moreover, the Supreme Court has even said that the federal government has not only the right, but also the obligation to do so.
We have all heard about the Oldman case. The federal government wanted to withdraw from an environmental assessment case that had gone to court and eventually to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had a fundamental responsibility to act in the matter of environmental assessment.
To confirm that, what better could I do than quote the former leader of the Bloc Quebecois who was then the opposition leader. I could quote many statements that he made regarding the James Bay case where, as environment minister, he had said “No, no, the federal law has to be applied”. It was on Quebec territory. He was very clear on this.
During the 1993 election campaign, in an interview with Le Point he said, “I support this initiative”. In 1994, in an interview with The Gazette he described the federal environmental legislation as “my baby”.
Maybe we should work in cooperation. Mr. Bouchard's baby is now—