To wrap up here, Chair, looking at the example of polar bears or some other species that is headed towards a more threatened status over time, there is precedent for this government and previous governments to, in a sense, trump the science, to override the legitimate scientific concerns about a species' viability in order to satisfy an economic rationale. Examples are oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, or marine shipping. Even if a species of the iconic nature of a polar bear is threatened, we have precedents showing that the government can simply say, “Thank you for your advice, Doctor, but we're going to allow the drilling to further threaten the species anyway.”
On May 28th, 2009. See this statement in context.