Madam Speaker, I am currently wrapping up a report that we will soon be submitting to the government because there is a problem in my riding. Along both the Yamaska River and the Rivière Noire, shoreline erosion is problematic. The people of Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint-Pie and Saint-Damase have been telling me about this for years. Obviously, that has all kinds of impacts on the environment, but people are also telling me about property that has been destroyed by the waves. Wakesurfing is one of the biggest culprits. It is not exactly commercial shipping, but it matters.
Given that property values are plummeting, along with all the other problems, inconveniences and irritants, at first, I naively thought all we had to do was contact the government and have the department send its inspectors out to do what had to be done. I learned the hard way that I was in for about two and a half years of endless consultations, reports and investigations for small municipalities that do not have a lot of resources.
Is it normal that such an archaic approach is being taken and that, as we speak, my assistant is the one writing up a very lengthy report, or in other words, doing the work that public servants should be doing right now?
Is this what he calls a modern country that cares about the environment?