As my colleague Mr. Hawkins has said, every day is Environment Day, and today is the last day of the recognized week called Environment Week.
I'd like to mention the tailings spill at Ekati Mine. Apparently, a large overflow of a contaminant wall — about 4.7 million litres of contaminants — spilled onto the tundra and the lakes where, of course, we have lake trout, grayling, whitefish, and so on, and the whole ecosystem, right from the invertebrates up to the migratory birds, and eventually to where we consume and where we get our energy from for our bodies.
Investigations are ongoing to determine the cause. It's still unknown, apparently. People are also looking at the effectiveness of the monitoring programs, which have come into question. There's a possibility that the spill may actually have been spotted, incidentally, by an employee flying into the mine. So I hope there are going to be some tuneups there.
Cleanup is apparently happening and is being pursued very aggressively and appropriately. But this whole thing brings into question the design of these development projects. Of course, during environmental reviews we're always assured that everything is well in hand and so on, but these things are based on so-called normals. They are based on the patterns of climate and so on. From having participated, I know that the tailings dams, which have ice cores, are designed for a certain amount of warming, and warming, of course, is much greater than predicted only ten or so years ago. There really are no normals anymore. We hear a lot about tailings, but not about the greenhouse gas emissions causing the climate change — one of the biggest issues we have today. Greenhouse gas emissions have doubled, largely because of the diamond mine development projects. Yet, Mr. Speaker, we still have no requirement for even 1 per cent renewable energy in any of our development projects. This, to me, is atrocious. We still need major tune-ups there. Even the youngest child on the street today will be able to tell you that.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Roland.
