Mr. Speaker, I am glad I am here tonight for this late show to answer this question. The reason I say that is because I spent three years of my life, before I got into politics, going up to Fort Chipewyan and working with the first nations there on environmental monitoring. It was a great privilege to be in that community, be invited into it, to meet with the elders there, and to understand the issues of those first nation communities and their community members. I take this matter very seriously.
I want to preface what I am saying with something that I think the member opposite should also take seriously. These contaminants that are being monitored are directly from the tailing ponds of the oil sands. I know the member to be an hon. member, and I think he does care about the environment. I hope he can convince his party leader one day to take the matter of climate change and the contamination from our oil and gas industry seriously enough so that we can work together across the aisle in the House to address these issues for these first nation communities.
Those contaminants did not come from anywhere else. The first nations there have started a collaborative initiative to monitor the water, the contaminants in the water and the impacts on their ecosystem. They also employ their community members to do that work. That is really important work, and I think it has led to the realization that the moving of the dock and the dredging that would need to take place to replace it is going to be a difficult issue. It is not as simple as just funding the issue.
However, I do take the matter seriously. The reason I say that is that, when we dredge that toxic waste up from the bottom, we are essentially going to spread it throughout the watershed. The Peace-Athabasca Delta, for generations and generations, has been the water source and the home to those first nations. They identify with that place. They identify that water and that watershed as being the most important thing for their lives, their livelihoods, their identity, their culture, their traditions and their traditional knowledge. All of these things connect back to that watershed.
I think this is really important. I know that Minister Anand has been in touch directly with the nations to discuss their concerns. Transport Canada has previously disclosed the presence of contamination in Transport Canada-owned lands at Fort Chipewyan. The Fort Chipewyan public port facility has been listed on the federal contaminated sites inventory, an open public list, since 2014. For almost a century, the wharf at Fort Chipewyan has been active with multiple users and uses. Studies show that contaminants in the sediments in the Transport Canada-owned water lot and in the lands adjacent to the wharf may have come from a variety of sources.
I really think this is an important issue. I would say there are a number of different steps that the department has taken, and I would think that we could work together with the first nations. I know that Minister Anand is taking this matter seriously. Transport Canada has taken some immediate steps and retained a qualified third-party environmental consultant through Public Services and Procurement Canada, and is working with the first nations and the consultant to address this very issue.
