Mr. Speaker, with all respect to the member across, it is a difficult message to believe after we have seen the changes the government has made to the Navigable Waters Protection Act.
If I could note to the member across and to his government some information they already know, I would like to put it on the record that scientists say that transferring control of the program and its lakes to a university is not ideal. Universities are not in the business of conducting decades-long research, and the liability involved in deliberately contaminating a lake may be too risky and too bureaucratically complicated for a school or non-profit research foundation to take on.
What we are really talking about here is losing the wholesale range of work that ELA was able to do. It would be great if the government would just come out and say that work will no longer be done, because everybody, certainly scientists, are indicating as such.
Finally, I would like to note that the Experimental Lakes Area is doing critical work in studying ecosystems, like those affected in northern Alberta by the tar sands. They would be in a key position to study the impact of chemicals in diluted bitumen and oil sands tailings ponds.
Is the government afraid of the kind of facts that ELA would come up with when it comes to the damage we are seeing in the tar sands and the tailings ponds?