Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I would like to read the following sentence:[...] we are concerned that Bill C-469 would enable anyone to challenge any regulatory standard at any time, thereby trumping the existing regulatory process and creating regulatory unpredictability.
This is on page 3 of Mr. Broad's brief.
Good afternoon, and thank you to our witnesses for being here.
I would like to say something to my colleague Mr. Blaine. I too, Mr. Blaine, have worked in the environmental field in the past: I practised applied engineering for 20 years. Unfortunately, I am not a lawyer. I must say that my other colleague Mr. Warawa makes the Quebecker in me sit up and take notice whenever he talks to me about Hydro Quebec and says that a federal act could encroach on fields of provincial jurisdiction and jeopardize hydroelectric development. This concerns me particularly because I was a civil engineer. It really upsets me. I hope that my colleagues from the Bloc will be sensitive to this issue, that is to say this bill's potential interference in fields of provincial jurisdiction.
I am thinking for instance of the flooding that occurs when dams are built. Obviously this has important environmental repercussions. When reading the information provided, it appears to me that any citizen could jeopardize the implementation of a project even if it has been approved at the various regulatory stages. Your testimony is almost shocking. I am quite shaken by what you have to say since the substantive principle of the bill is that any Canadian resident has a right to an ecologically balanced and healthy environment. I think that there is a consensus here on this bill.
We are talking about infringing on areas of jurisdiction, we are talking about...