Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think I need to go too much further than what has been offered here already today, but I do want to make it very clear that I am certainly in full support of this motion. I am certainly glad that it is here today to discuss and hear.

I think that when we hear the narrative provided by people like Mr. Bromley, who in some ways is an historian on this particular issue, he has seen the passage of time on this particular project. He complains about his grey hair. When I started the Assembly, I had a full head of hair. See what this has done to me?

In all seriousness, the issue of how this is going to be a perpetual, ongoing monitoring project where the concept today, as I see it, has a passive solution. I think they’ve fixed it, they’ve tidied it up and they’ve swept it under the carpet. I think that Member Dolynny was quite right; if you don’t see it, it is not an issue. I think what is happening here is a lot of people don’t see the volume or magnitude of the problem. We hear about it. We hear the number. The reality is, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to a lot of people. Because it is buried under the ground, we don’t get to see it, we don’t get to smell it, we don’t taste it. It is not like the gallows are hanging over us every day where we can look at it and go, oh my goodness, watch out for that glacier of a problem. We don’t see it. If people were to understand, and I don’t have the right size to give you a sense of magnitude and I’m not going to try to pretend to say it is exactly like this, but if people could see and visualize that there is more arsenic there than, say, the court building downtown type of thing, people would be, oh my goodness, that’s a lot of arsenic. When the reality is something as minute as a sliver of a Bayer Aspirin could kill you and all of a sudden you’re looking at the size of less than an Aspirin to the size of a building and you think, is this what’s hanging over our head. It is that type of illustration that I think the public needs to be fully aware of.

The deciders in this case I think have missed the point. It is about what is best for the public. I think what they’ve done is they’ve decided what is best for administration, what is best for them. Yes, they may be doing a great job. I’m not going to suggest that they are not employing some of the best engineering and the best philosophy of today, but that is kind of like the issue I’ve been raising as of yet, is the fact that we are trying to solve yesterday’s problems with today’s technology, but today’s technology is nowhere near able to address these problems for the future. That’s why I believe strongly that innovation is so important on this particular one.

It is time, as the report has said even under Section 5.1 where they talk about wanting to have active research as a permanent solution to this problem. It

is almost like saying once we’ve put this problem on ice, we will forget about it. By the way, that is exactly what we’ve done. INAC has put the arsenic problem on ice and it will be forgotten about and no one is going to pay attention to the $1.9 million of today’s dollars being spent under the care and maintenance of this problem.

Over 10 years ago it was $1 million a year of public money, of federal government money under DIAND stewardship, which is now under AANDC but federal government money at the end of the day. That’s why it’s so important to be relentless on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, to wait for technology to be stumbled upon I think is a mistake. It’s chasing a rainbow and just hoping it comes over to your area one day and there’s the pot of gold that revealed itself. I don’t believe that that is going to be the case. I believe the only way we’re going to find a solution for Giant Mine is if we actively pursue one.

I’d like to point out a section within the report, and at this time, Mr. Speaker, I want to give thanks to Mr. Kevin O’Reilly, who has provided me with some areas to focus in on. I really appreciate his passion and how he works so hard on these types of things. I do admire his ability and concerns and experience and, as I said, his passion. I don’t think we can underscore his passion and concern of the environment. There’s a clause here, or a chapter and a line here that I do want to point out. It says, “Many people of the public, including elected officials such as band councillors, expressed their concern that active research to identify a permanent solution is a necessary requirement of the project.” This isn’t this side of the House speaking. This isn’t me speaking. This is the public speaking about what they want. Hence, that’s partly probably why Ms. Bisaro has brought this motion forward, is because enough is not being done.

Today we need the government to adopt this report and then, even more so, take the bold and innovative step in implementing it and finding a solution. If we don’t do this, as I said earlier, the Giant Mine arsenic problem will just sit on ice and will long be forgotten. That, Mr. Speaker, is a big shame. Thank you.