Madam Speaker, I appreciate the question from my friend and colleague just across the border. Certainly we have lived some of the realities of the economic benefits and impacts of the current government's management of the energy sector, specifically the cancellation of the KXL pipeline, which exclusively went through the constituencies of Cypress Hills—Grasslands and Battle River—Crowfoot to where it was to cross the border into the United States.
The member makes a really good point. The energy industry takes these things very seriously, and the government needs to ensure that there are strong regulations and that workers are protected. I saw first-hand, during the 10 years that I worked in the energy industry, some more lax regulations in the beginning, and in some cases tragedies. I believe there was an oil and gas worker from the member's constituency who tragically passed away because of exposure to sour gas that led to some pretty radical changes, to the point of workers needing to carrying SCBAs and additional testing equipment to ensure that other workers in similar situations would not be exposed to the same threat that led to the tragedy.
I go back further to my late grandfather who helped build one of the first gas facilities at Gooseberry Lake, in the region that I now have the honour of representing. My late grandfather, Felix Kurek, helped physically build it and was then hired to help run it. He spent his entire working career in the energy sector. I heard some of the stories from the early days: if a float on a tailings pond was stuck, they would simply dive in the tailings and go to the float. That was back in the sixties. Things have obviously changed. Now we have world-class environmental regulations and world-class safety regulations that have shown what can be accomplished when industry, government and workers have mutual respect and work together to accomplish something.
I would simply conclude with this. I think that speaks to why the energy industry is so important in this country. We lead the world. People care about where their food comes from, whether it is organic or not, and they care about whether their coffee is fair trade. They care about diamonds in their wedding bands. We need to be the supplier of choice. We can be the supplier of choice when it comes to energy and ensure that there is a strong mutual respect for workers, industry and the governments involved to encourage that development. That can be done. We have seen it done in the past in this country. I lament the fact that we are having some of these conversations today that would question that this can in fact be our future.
