Mr. Speaker, our government shares the hon. member's concerns for the importance of protecting the southern resident killer whale population. This is a population that has been under stress for many years. There are three principal factors that have contributed to the stress: contaminants in the water; the whales' inability to find sufficient prey, in this case often chinook salmon; and the increased noise, represented by a whole series of marine traffic.
I am prepared to tell the House and all Canadians that the Minister of Transport and I have a very ambitious plan to more than mitigate all of these measures to ensure that this iconic species survives.