Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for his very good question and support. Coming from municipal backgrounds, we have always been conscious when senior levels of government start to impose their will. However, in this particular case the federal government has a very clear and well defined role on approving pesticides.
It is the government's responsibility to determine the safety of a product and it falls within its purview to do that. I would expect that the role for the federal government here is the precautionary principle that I talked about earlier, but it is also the role of the federal government to take some leadership around this matter, particularly because it impacts on water quality. That is another place the federal government has a role. We have an inadequate drinking water policy in this country and this is one step that is clearly linked with water. This is an area for the federal government to demonstrate some very clear leadership.