Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to hear that the opposition has had an epiphany.
In one of my questions earlier, I mentioned my respect and regard for engineers in Canada. I grew up in the home of a chemical engineer, who has done an enormous amount of industrial work across Canada. Waste water was a specialty of my father's. I also have a son-in-law who is very concerned about the environment and providing energy for Africa. He has a doctorate in electrical engineering, and he is currently in Ghana building solar fields to provide electrical energy for a country that is so desperately in need. I have never met people who are more concerned about the environment than the engineers of Canada.
When I was looking at some of the websites and learning a bit about what our engineers were doing in Canada to preserve the environment, I looked at the Schulich School of Engineering. It is active in research that crosses all departments in the engineering school, including civil, chemical, mechanical, geomatics, and electrical engineering, and it collaborates with all departments of geoscience and biological sciences. It says that it is a leader in pipeline integrity, maintenance and management.
One of the things we do know is that there are occasionally some difficulties with the pipelines, but those problems are miniscule in comparison with the problems with the pump stations. We know the engineers are exceedingly diligent in the work they do to keep the pump stations active and working properly. That is their job.
One of the NDP members talked about sustainable jobs in our economy. The Pipe Line Contractors Association of Canada is made up of people who have very reliable and well-respected companies in Canada. They are prominent people in our society who work hard to ensure the integrity of those pipelines. They talk about some of the job opportunities. They are looking at skilled occupations and trades, and jobs in the transportation industry, logistics, equipment operating, management, and supply testing and inspection.
If we take a look at the opportunities that the Energy East pipeline would provide in the development phase alone, we are talking about more than 8,300 full-time direct jobs and 5,300 indirect jobs. In the operational phase, there would be 900 full-time direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. It will look at local hiring for the most part.
We need pipelines. We need to ensure that the people who have the demand for energy in their homes, automobiles and businesses across the country have the fuel they need to keep them going. This is an economic driver for Canada.
We said earlier that we were blessed with enormous resources. Our country has been blessed with resources beyond comparison. Those resources are there to be the economic driver for our country.
The bill would bring safety and security to our pipeline management. In the process, it would create jobs for Canadians, jobs for our young people and jobs for our engineers. That is good news for every one of us.
