Madam Speaker, one of the things sustainability requires is trust from the people. I want to ask the minister her opinion on this.
When the community pastures were turned over a couple of years ago, one of them ended up being turned over to Environment Canada in my riding. At that point we had basically set up a pilot project with the members of the local community. We involved them. They were going to have a say. They had a community council that was set up to advise Environment Canada on the issues. There was going to be a commitment, making sure that research money that was spent on this pasture would go through the local community and that the community would have an active role in dealing with the sustainability of the pasture. These are people who have lived there for 100 years. They know the area and know it very well.
When this government came in, that was all thrown out. The pasture patrons have basically been ignored. The local community has been set aside, and every decision that is being made on that pasture is now being dictated to the community. In fact, we have had Environment Canada officials come down there in the middle of the night, drive around in their Suburbans, take a look at the place, and leave without even talking to local people. Local people knew they were there. They refused to meet with them.
Therefore, when it comes to sustainability, does the government not realize the need to actually involve local communities, allowing them to have a say and allowing them to participate, or is it going to continue to dictate to people out in the areas who have to live in these environments, who know far more than she and the government bureaucrats know about their conditions?