Mr. Speaker, I thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment for his answer. I particularly appreciate the part of the answer that he delivered in French. Also, for once, it was a clear answer. I would like to congratulate him on a very complete answer.
Yes, there is monitoring. The parliamentary secretary himself acknowledged that there are high concentrations of mercury around the oil sands and that the concentrations in some places are so high that they exceed the standards.
I asked what the Conservatives would do to address the situation. Unfortunately, for the time being, all they are doing is monitoring the situation, not fixing it. They must take action to protect Canadians' health and their environment.
Back in 2011, then-environment commissioner Scott Vaughan criticized the incomplete data. He even said that data on the impact of oil sands development on the environment and health were poor or non-existent.
Now that we have a little information thanks to monitoring, what will the government do to protect Canadians' health and their environment?