Mr. Chair, the preamble to Bill S-15 is not repeated in the provincial legislation, so it would only apply to the federal act. The proposed amendment calls on the Government of Nova Scotia to, in part, not use Bill S-15 as a precedent for creating new national parks in areas of oil and gas exploration, or allowing oil and gas exploration in any new national parks. This subject matter is not germane to the province of Nova Scotia.
The preamble as currently written suggests that Parks Canada should no longer consider proposed national parks should they be located in areas of oil and gas exploration. This could constitute an enormous constraint on Parks Canada's ability to complete the national parks system.
I think this was the point that was made by Ms. Leslie in her questioning of certain witnesses. This is a park that exists within an area of hydrocarbon exploration, and we're actually getting an enormous ecological integrity gain from this legislation.
The preamble is redundant in that Bill S-15 does not amend the Canada National Parks Act to permit petroleum exploration and drilling activities in any national park or national park reserve, nor in any future national park or national park reserve.