Your point is well taken.
Mr. Collyer, I was struck by the comments you made making the very strong distinction between the words “whether” and “how”, and as an elected official I really appreciate the fact that you've recognized the role of elected officials in making these kinds of decisions. I think you are exactly correct in your assessment of what an EA should be.
Unfortunately, it has become a political process, which questions whether a project should even go ahead or not, and that takes the responsibility out of the hands of elected officials, who, in terms of consultation processes, are subject to something called elections, and we're consulting on a regular basis. Having environmental assessments deal with the environment itself and how a project is developed makes a lot of sense.
I also appreciated your reference to the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, having been part of that assessment back in the 1970s myself, personally, and again, it's an astonishing poster child for how not to do things.
Mr. Collyer, just talking about the Mackenzie Valley pipeline for a minute, do we know how to build pipelines in an environmentally sound way, especially with regard to stream crossings?