Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of days ago Mr. Pudluk made some startling statements and Mr. Whitford had some very interesting legitimate questions about what the government will do about PanArctic's plan for ocean dumping of scrap metals in Arctic waters.
Mr. Speaker, I have spent a great deal of my life in the north Baffin where PanArctic was most active in their oil and gas exploration. Burning and burying of garbage and scrap metal was a common practice by PanArctic and was never acceptable to the people of the area but was reluctantly tolerated. Now they want to dump scrap metal in one of the most sensitive ocean ecosystems of the world, according to the scientific community. As the Minister of Renewable Resources stated yesterday, if PanArctic is allowed to dump in the ocean then there is nothing stopping PanArctic and other companies from doing it again and again, for they would have already set a precedent in obtaining ocean dumping permits.
In today's world our strong concern for the environment and the need to protect and preserve the most sensitive areas means we can no longer tolerate senseless practices of waste burying and ocean dumping. Mr. Speaker, I want to state today, where are the animal rights groups when we need them?