Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House tonight to follow up a question I asked the government on the new environmental assessment process it is building. I know this topic has been the subject of a lot debate in the House. The debate can sometimes get quite polemical when we start talking about pipelines and who should and should not be consulted.
I would like to boil it down to what I think is a very reasonable litmus test of the new process. It is an issue that is arising in and around Winnipeg as part of the energy east proposal. The current proposal on the books is to convert a section of pipeline east of Winnipeg between Hadashville and Falcon Lake. It is a bigger piece of the pipeline than that, but for the distance between Hadashville and Falcon Lake, the pipeline runs parallel to the city of Winnipeg's aqueduct. There is some concern that either a catastrophic or sustained low-level leakage of bitumen could contaminate the Winnipeg water supply.
What I am hoping to hear tonight is an acknowledgement by the government that a litmus test for its new process should be that Winnipeggers get independent scientific advice from that process on the safety of their water supply, if that proposal goes ahead. If it is not safe, then as part of the process, there should be recommendations on how to ensure the safety of Winnipeg's water supply from the project, if it does go ahead.
I would like to leave some of the polemics aside, draw attention to what I think is a very important issue, an important test for a new process, and hear the government acknowledge that this is a reasonable test and that whatever new process it develops will ensure, with independent science, the safety of Winnipeg's water supply.