Mr. Speaker, I want to return to a question that I raised in the House on February 4 regarding the Devils Lake diversion in North Dakota which is going to be drained into Manitoba. This is a big international issue which requires involvement and leadership from the Government of Canada. I would like to bring the House up to date on what is happening.
Currently the Devils Lake diversion is in the North Dakota supreme court. The hearings started yesterday. I was glad to see that Justice Carol Kapsner, one of the four members of the supreme court of North Dakota started to take a hard look at this. The judge wondered why this project was not a U.S. federal project where there would be better controls than a state project with no controls on environmental issues.
A suit has been brought forward by the governments of Manitoba and Minnesota. It also includes the People To Save The Sheyenne and the Peterson Coulee Outlet Association. They have hired Bill Delmore as the lead counsel on their case to make their arguments.
They are claiming that there is a significant difference in the quality of the water in Devils Lake which is going to be drained into the Sheyenne which then enters the Red River, which then flows north into Manitoba and goes into Lake Winnipeg. Parts of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg are in my riding. That lake supports a large commercial fishery and a sports fishery. It has many beautiful beaches. It supports a very viable tourism industry. It is also the main aquifer recharge zone for Manitoba. It is important that we keep this watershed healthy. Now we are talking about interbasin transfers of water.
What they are saying in the argument brought forward yesterday and today is that there are at least two different parasites, or biota, in the water in Devils Lake versus what is normally in the watershed in the Red River Basin. The big issue is that there are at least three times the levels of harmful pollutants in Devils Lake. That is why it is called Devils Lake. It is a bad lake and it has some issues.
We want to make sure that the government is being a full participant in this issue. The government of Manitoba, to its credit, has fought very strongly and has been a great adversary for protecting the Red River Basin and making sure that the waters in Manitoba are protected. However, this is a federal responsibility. We are talking about the environment. We are talking about the Department of Fisheries and Oceans which has a very significant lead role to play in this issue rather than to just sit back and watch what the province is doing in collaboration with the state of Minnesota and other organizations.
We have between the U.S. and Canada the International Joint Commission on the international water treaty which goes back to early 1900s. If we do not take a very aggressive and proactive role, I fear that the whole International Joint Commission will fall apart. This water treaty and many other treaties between the two countries would become null and void because it is not doing its job and not functioning or working--