Mr. Speaker, the minister made reference in his remarks, and more than once, I believe, to the great benefit that is brought to our national energy strategy by the Province of Manitoba and the building of hydroelectric dams in northern Manitoba, with their clean, renewable hydroelectric power.
What he did not comment on, though, is a shortcoming, I suppose, in this concept of a national energy strategy, in that there is no east-west grid as such where Manitoba can easily sell its power. We can sell it north and south and we do sell a great deal to Minnesota and the states directly to the south of us. We also would like to sell it north to Nunavut so that it does not need to have those diesel-powered generating stations. We can ship the power north, in fact, but we also want to sell it east-west.
Could the minister comment on what his government plans to do to enable the east-west trade of our clean, renewable energy?
While I have the floor, there is one other thing I need to ask him about. It is rare that I get an opportunity to pose a question directly to our Minister of the Environment. Our great inland sea, Lake Winnipeg, is in peril in that the Americans are hell bent and determined to open the Devils Lake diversion and flood our waters with invasive biota and God knows what kind of phosphates and chemicals, et cetera.
We are well aware of the issue. I know the minister is well aware of the issue. Could the minister brief us on whether there is any progress in trying to talk some sense into our American counterparts and not put our great inland sea of Lake Winnipeg in peril?