Mr. Speaker, Canada's capacity to deal with a major oil spill in Atlantic Canada or the Beaufort Sea is being decimated by the government. Conservatives are curtailing the work of a noted research centre at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. They are phasing out research on the biological effects of oil and gas. Worse still, they have put world-class oil spill expert Ken Lee on notice that his job is in jeopardy, if one can imagine.
Why is the government being so reckless when it comes to protecting our coastal zones?