Mr. Speaker, the fact is that the federal government does not take its enforcement responsibilities seriously at all, and this is the problem.
The hon. member mentioned the Canada-Alberta Administrative Agreement for the Control of Deposits of Deleterious Substances, but the federal government has been absent, really, from this agreement. In fact, the Commissioner of the Environment stated only a year ago that the main coordinating committee of this agreement has not met for three years.
Also, the agreement has not been fully implemented. For example, and I am reading from a note from the Library of Parliament, under clause 5.2 of the agreement, Canada and Alberta envisioned establishing an arrangement relating to “complementary and co-operative monitoring programs with provisions for information sharing”.
However, it appears that no such arrangement was ever concluded. The government is missing in action on this. I must remind the hon. member that under the Fisheries Act, one does not have to prove that the ecosystem is damaged, only that deleterious substances are being deposited, whether from air or from water.