[Technical difficulty—Editor] a pleasure to be here.
I just have to re-emphasize what Minister O'Regan said: It's non-negotiable. We have to do this. This is today we're talking about for those 23,500 jobs and the Line 5 jobs that will be impacted almost immediately. I think everyone is cognizant that we have to move forward. We have to find other ways to power our economies. However, at the end of the day, Ontario has one of the cleanest out there, with our hydro and nuclear fleets, to be able to provide those emissions free....
Taking those types of jobs, and the impact of putting all of the transport of that fuel onto either trucks or even rail, adds to the environmental impacts. We are looking at things like hydrogen and small modular reactors through nuclear to enhance, again, that clean ability to provide stable, reliable energy. No one's disputing that we don't have to move. But to come in and say all of a sudden that we're just going to pull this out, with no thought process as to what the impacts will be to humans....
Let's not forget the human impact here, the lives that will be devastated and disrupted by trying to do it this quickly. I think it was Minister Eyre who suggested that to the person on the street, it would not seem practical or realistic that we would be able to do it now. We need time to be able to do that. We've been doing it for a lot of years safely. There have been no leaks. There have been no spills. Why we can't fathom that we can do another pipeline in an even more enhanced way for this very viable and effective product.... I believe we can and should and in fact must.