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.