You are right in saying that you did not try to prevent—
Evidence of meeting #48 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
Evidence of meeting #48 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
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NDP
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
I think it would be more accurate to say that you were unable to prevent people from being critical because you did indeed try. You went to court.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
No, we did not try to prevent anything. We told those people to tell the truth when they write to my clients. I have to speak up because they are my clients. I brought them to the St. Lawrence myself. When someone writes or tells lies to my client, it is only natural for me to respond to my client and tell them not to listen to all that.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
I will try to address this matter without saying any old thing. I am very familiar with this issue, believe it or not.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
I know. In fact, I remember you.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
How many miles did you say the liquefied natural gas carrier travelling between Île d'Orléans and the south shore would be from the cruise boats? How many miles are between the south shore of Île d'Orléans and the south shore of Quebec City?
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
No, I was talking about a docked LNG carrier and a cruise boat travelling by. It is the same thing as in Boston.
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NDP
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
There is a natural gas terminal in Boston.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
There are cruise boats there as well. The terminal does not interfere with the cruise boats.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Do you have any inkling what the U.S. Coast Guard does every time an LNG carrier—
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
I know there is a problem involving all stakeholders. People went to look and the terminal does not seem to bother the cruise boats in Boston.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
My name is Thomas: I like to look at things and touch them before I am convinced. I think that should be your approach, Mr. Gaudreault, because if you went to Boston to see what the Coast Guard calls for, then you would understand. I met the highest ranking officials in the U.S. Coast Guard. They told me that to install a liquefied natural gas terminal so close to a population as large as the one in Quebec City is pure foolishness. Those are their words, not mine.
Did you know that when any pleasure craft approaches an LNG carrier in Boston, the Coast Guard is instructed to use deadly force? When I was in Boston in January 2006, the highest ranking officer in the Coast Guard gave me a concrete example. He told me that during the previous summer, some young people on a boat approached an incoming large LNG carrier and he looked into filing disciplinary action against his own staff because they did not shoot at the boat, which was their only order.
From that to the Port of Quebec going to court to prevent people from having an opinion. Allow me to express my opinion, Mr. Gaudreault. I think you were extremely ill advised to do that. If there is to be a debate on a liquefied natural gas terminal, then let it be. If you think you have valid arguments, then prove it. But if you intend to prevent people from saying what they have to say on a project like this, then that does not bode well on future discussions about your new piers.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
Do not forget that the liquefied gas project was not on a Port of Quebec pier, but on a private pier.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
I was not against it. I am still not.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
You said you want people to tell the truth. Let us agree, you and I, to tell the truth.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
I am not against the liquefied gas project.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
You did everything you could to prevent people from talking about it. You were in it up to your eyeballs.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
“Everything”? That is a bit of a stretch. Telling people to tell my clients the truth is what I did. If I had it to do over again, I would do the same.
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NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
The good news, Mr. Gaudreault, is that the Rabaska LNG terminal will never happen.
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President and Executive Director, Quebec Port Authority
I was about to say that it has not happened yet.