Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question.
Well, as I said before, we believe that, like western Canadian refineries, refineries in eastern Canada should have the opportunity to source competitively priced Canadian oil. I think it would be counterintuitive to think about it any other way. So we welcome, in principle, the prospect of shipping western Canadian oil to eastern Canada, and to new markets abroad, and as I alluded to in my previous answer, for domestic demand, because we understand the importance of diversifying our markets in order to benefit from the incredible opportunity of energy development provided within natural resources.
This particular project will have to undergo a scientific environmental review by the National Energy Board, and we'll wait for the science and the facts before we conduct our own review and determinations. What I can tell you, for my part, in my capacity as the Minister of Natural Resources, is that what we're focused on here is ensuring that the foundational pieces like pipeline safety and the measures we will take will lead to greater confidence and understanding for communities from coast to coast to coast—that they are in fact world-class, and that elements of it are world-leading. We've already gone through this exercise in meeting the five stringent conditions from British Columbia, or at least four of them, since one of the conditions was between Alberta and British Columbia.
We want to ensure that our prevention, our preparedness in response, and, in particular, our liability regime give Canadians the confidence. To that extent, we have an absolute liability regime in place. It's the only one of its kind in the world, of up to a billion dollars, in the remote case that there is a spill. It doesn't matter whose fault it is; the pipeline companies have to start their activities immediately. The “fault and negligent” regime remains in place and it's unlimited.
Obviously, what we've proposed in a recent announcement I made—and I hope it will garner the support of our colleagues from across the floor—is new powers for the National Energy Board to enforce activities, and not make taxpayers pay, but rather focus on polluters paying, in the event that, as rare as it might be, a spill should occur.
So these are the important pieces that I think help build confidence through engagement and consultation with our communities across the country—that what is being proposed here and what is already in place is working. We're proud of our 99.999% safety record for the more than 73,000 kilometres of pipeline we already have in Canada; and we want to build on that success, as statistically impressive as that might seem.
