Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Fleetwood—Port Kells for raising this important issue and his advocacy to protect this iconic species.
We take our role to protect the southern resident killer whale very seriously, and that is why I was incredibly proud to stand beside the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans this week to announce new measures to protect this species.
These measures include an investment of $61.5 million, which includes funding to support marine habitat restoration. Importantly, we will also be strengthening controls on five harmful contaminants that we know have an impact on this species when their food resource is scarce and interfere with their reproduction.
We are going to continue to protect nature and wildlife that these species depend upon.