Mr. Speaker, it has been over two years now since Parliament held an emergency debate on the threat to Manitoba's health and environment from water dumped into the Red River system from Devils Lake, North Dakota.
Members instructed the government at that time to move as quickly as possibly to stop the flow until an advanced filtration system was in place. This has not happened.
North Dakota may actually increase the flow, with parts of a community in North Dakota pushing for even a second drainage outlet and allowing greater contamination into the Red River system. Some are even pushing for increasing the allowance of biota into the system.
This issue is not going to go away. Manitobans are concerned not only with the existing situation, but that the state of North Dakota is refusing to bring this issue to the International Joint Commission to deal with it.
Manitobans want to know what the Canadian government is going to do to protect their interests.