Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to follow up on the government's decision to close the Experimental Lakes Area. The government has now thrown up a wall of secrecy around the ELA extending beyond just muzzling scientists. Now visitors are increasingly denied access to the ELA facilities themselves.
One example is that last month the Department of Fisheries and Oceans blocked the Council of Canadians from visiting the ELA. The council noted subsequently that:
All media requests with scientists have been denied by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Requests from Members of Parliament have been denied multiple times. Requests from citizens for ELA scientists to speak about their work have also been rejected.
I am one of those members of Parliament who was denied access to visit that government facility, when in previous years MPs would have no problem paying a visit. How are we elected members supposed to do our job if the government is now denying us access to the very facilities and program personnel we are supposed to make decisions on?
The wall of secrecy does not end there.
I would like to quote from a letter sent to The Hill Times by Peter Kirby of Kenora, Ontario. Mr. Kirby notes the lack of transparency and the lack of attention by key Conservatives to constituents on the ELA. He asks:
Why does the [Member of Parliament for Kenora] refuse to debate the closure? He declined to appear on a television program or attend a public forum in Kenora.
[The member] advertises himself as a “strong voice”. [But]...what good is a strong voice, if it does not listen to the people it should be speaking for?
The [Member for Kenora], the [Minister of the Environment], the [Minister of Fisheries and Oceans] are determined not to debate or discuss the ELA or give the public information.
The [Member for Kenora] says that a “deal” is being worked out to “transfer” the ELA, but gives us no details.
Mr. Kirby continued by asking what organization would take over the project. What would its capacity, technically and financially, be now and into the future to handle ELA research? Would the ELA scientists be transferred? Who would determine what research got done? Would the research be of the same world-class quality? He concluded that it was time to break the silence and end the secrecy surrounding the deal.
Mr. Kirby is not alone among residents of Kenora and across Canada in raising these important questions. I would like the member opposite to explain how Conservative Party insiders in Manitoba are pushing for oil companies to take over the Experimental Lakes Area. Are we going to see the Imperial Oil Experimental Lakes Area? Handing the ELA to big oil interests will end up tainting the very science that makes the ELA so valuable. Independent and impartial scientists will be independent and impartial no longer.
Taxpayers have invested millions in the ELA and now the government will hand it over to private interests for a song and a prayer. Taxpayers have spent $5 million upgrading the facilities over the last few years, including a new fisheries laboratory and two new residences. The member for Kenora once crowed about an $800,000 investment in the ELA, though I notice that this press release has now been removed from his website.
This would not just be a sell-off but a bald-faced assault on public science. It would amount to Canadians losing a unique and vital research platform that is crucial to the government fulfilling its obligation to protect Canada's lakes and fisheries.
Are the Conservatives looking into handing over the facility to oil sector interests? If not oil interests, just whom are they negotiating with to take over this facility?
