Mr. Speaker, my intervention today follows up on the question I asked on December 4 last year about the many changes made to the Navigable Waters Protection Act.
I would like to point out that the reform of the Navigable Waters Protection Act was never announced during the election campaign or in the Conservative government's mammoth budgets. It was a real surprise, especially since the government did not announce it during the election campaign.
Unfortunately, when I asked the Minister of Transport my question, he did not respond in any way to the concerns of Canadians about the changes to this legislation.
However, my question was quite clear, simple and inspired by comments from Canadians. I travelled around the riding of Mégantic—L'Érable and the Chaudière River area to find out if the public knew about this reform. They told me that they did not know that Lac Mégantic, Rivière Chaudière, or even Rivière Saint-François, in my riding, would no longer have environmental protection.
Following my visit, people came to see me. They could not believe that their Conservative MP did not stand up for their river or lake. Even after I got back to my riding, I received a number of calls from people who wanted to thank me and to tell me that they were angry about this situation. These are a few examples of people in the community who were not aware of this reform. They were shocked and angry.
When it comes to protecting navigable waters, I highly doubt that the legendary slogan that the Conservatives used to appeal to Canadians—“Our region in power”—can be applied. Instead, our slogan—“Our region abandoned by the Conservatives”—seems more fitting. The comments my colleague made earlier about employment insurance shows that this is true. The same thing is happening here.
In this respect, we are wondering why the Conservatives allowed the President of the Treasury Board to protect the lakes of the rich and famous in his riding and abandon the rest of Canadians. That is the question.
I examined the whole situation carefully and there is no reasonable explanation. It is important to mention that, when asked a question in the House, my NDP colleague clearly showed that the website regarding the Navigable Waters Protection Act mentioned the word “environment” dozens of times. As soon as she mentioned this in the House—the next day, I believe—the website was completely changed with every instance of the word “environment” removed. This may have been a coincidence, but I think that it was arranged by the Conservative Party.
People are upset that the government is abandoning environmental protection. They do not understand why certain lakes and rivers are protected while others, such as Rivière Saint-François, Lac Mégantic, and Rivière Chaudière, are not. That is my question.