Thank you, Mr. Chair.
And thank you, witnesses, for staying at a fairly late hour. I appreciate that you're still here.
A pipeline has spilled about 22,000 barrels of oil into the Alberta muskeg. It's a pretty significant environmental disaster. It's certainly going to have an impact on streams and wildlife, and fisheries in particular. The way the Fisheries Act is being modified by this bill talks about “serious harm” and “permanent harm”. I wonder if either Mr. Kneen or Mr. Hazell would like to speak.
This spill—presumably even one as large as this, one of the largest in North American history and one that is going to have an incredible impact—might very well be defined as “temporary” and not really subject to the provisions of the bill. Can we look forward to this kind of environmental disaster wreaking havoc on our fisheries with the way the act is going to be modified under Bill C-38?