Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Berthier—Maskinongé.
This issue means a lot to me. The Lac-Saint-Louis riding covers the westernmost part of the Island of Montreal, known as the West Island, nestled among a network of major rivers and bodies of water. These days, crossing one of these bodies of water via the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge is a little difficult, not because the bridge is under construction, but because a new bridge is being built. In the meantime, travelling from my riding to the riding of Vaudreuil—Soulanges is very hard.
My riding is effectively surrounded by bodies of water on three sides: the Rivière des Prairies to the north, the St. Lawrence River to the south, and Lac des Deux Montagnes to the west. The Ottawa River flows into the Rivière des Prairies and Lac des Deux Montagnes and then into the St. Lawrence. This can be problematic at times because of sediment carried in by the Ottawa River. Some water in the St. Lawrence River turns brown at the point where it reaches my riding because of the Ottawa River sediment. The other part is fairly clear.
As a member of Parliament who pays close attention to what is happening around his riding, I have seen water levels change from one year to the next for natural reasons. An order was issued not long ago concerning water regulation. The order states that natural phenomena should be what determines water levels. There are at least four or five boating and sailing clubs on the St. Lawrence River in my riding. The water is low some years and higher other years. That is a problem for people who have boats, who sail and engage in all kinds of other recreational activities. I am therefore very familiar with the situation on the river.
The river is not the same as it was 300 years ago. We sometimes forget, but the river has changed a lot. Think of the construction of Notre Dame Island at the Expo 67 site, when an artificial island was built right in the middle of the river. Obviously, the seaway has changed the river dynamics a great deal. The changes can be seen in a wonderful film by Quebec animation director Frédéric Back. He made an extraordinary film about the St. Lawrence River that shows the changes that have taken place over the years. There were no hydroelectric plants along the river 300 years ago. There have been a lot of changes, and what is currently happening with shoreline erosion is a more complex phenomenon than one might think.
By the way, I would like to acknowledge the work of the marine pilots. I know several. As members know, these pilots board a ship and pilot it along the river all the way to the Great Lakes. Once it reaches the Great Lakes, other marine pilots take over. They do extraordinary work navigating this river, whose contours can be rather tricky at times. What is more, the river is not very deep. Flying between Montreal and Toronto, we can see the bottom of the river from the plane. That may be one of the reasons waves have an impact on the shoreline.
The river has evolved a lot. It is an economic driver, and several members have raised that fact in their speeches. It is a waterway that has a huge economic impact, not just on Montreal and on Quebec's economy, but also on Ontario's economy and that of the rest of Canada as well. Accordingly, when we make decisions about navigation on the river, we have to consult the economic stakeholders. That obviously includes Quebec. The Government of Quebec has an interest in making sure its voice is heard.
We have also heard that shoreline erosion is not necessarily very easy to explain. It is not just a question of ship speeds or size. As I just said, the marine pilots do extraordinary work to ensure that passing ships have as little impact as possible on the shoreline and the natural environment of the river.
Incidentally, I would like to remind the House that the government, in co-operation with the Government of Quebec, asked that voluntary measures be implemented to reduce ship speeds. One might think that those measures would not have any impact because they were voluntary. However, I read that 98% of ships are complying with the new reduced speeds, which is quite something. Ships, guided by marine pilots, are doing what they can to minimize impacts.
I mentioned this earlier in my question to my colleague from Victoria. When we were discussing the forest fires in Alberta at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, we heard that we never used to get the kind of winds that we are seeing today in the forests and on the river. That all goes back to climate change. We are in an unpredictable situation. It is unprecedented. We have to assess what is happening in the river because of human factors, such as shipping, but also because of environmental factors, especially those related to climate change.
The government assesses what is happening in the river to carefully target the right solutions. Let me give an example of a case where, thanks to sound scientific research, we avoided spending billions of dollars for nothing. Everyone is familiar with the Experimental Lakes Area, a natural laboratory in Ontario. It is home to experiments on pollution issues, which are conducted in real lakes. At one point, it was determined that nitrogen levels in waste water needed to be reduced and that billions upon billions of dollars would have to be spent to that end. Scientific research in the Experimental Lakes Area concluded that it was not nitrogen that was causing the problem. In the end, the billions of dollars did not need to be spent. We must be careful to arrive at the right scientific conclusions before taking action.