Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. This is a very serious concern, obviously, dealing with arsenic trioxide.
The water licence applications submitted under the auspices of an emergency, which excuses it from review process and so on, contains additional provisions to carry out work underground. So this work will not be regulated by environmental conditions governing the overall remediation project. AANDC argues the underground work is urgent, but YKDFN, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, doesn’t agree, and others question the work qualifies for the emergency exemption required to go ahead now.
As co-proponent, what independent work has this government done to evaluate the urgency of this aspect of the project? In other words, are we making our own decisions here or just following the federal proponent, which is also the regulator? Thank you.