Thank you.
Again, those were great presentations.
We've heard a lot about regulatory systems and how they impact competitiveness in the Canadian economy. Competitiveness is one of the things that we're here to talk about, and it was a theme that contributors were asked to address.
I want to talk very specifically about the news yesterday that was quite devastating to much of the business community as well as employees and people who are looking for work and struggling in Calgary, and that is the withdrawal of the energy east pipeline. The applicant was very clear that they withdrew because of regulatory changes to the process. Yesterday in the House of Commons, the minister, in response to a number of questions about the changes that were made to the regulatory process, insisted that this was not, in fact, the case. He said, “...nothing has changed in the regulatory process. The same rules that applied and that led to the approval of billions of dollars of investment in the energy sector, as well as tens of thousands of jobs, still existed and would have to the energy east pipeline.” He want on to say, “The rules did not change, not at the beginning, not in mid-stream, and not at the end.”
Mr. Bloomer, I'd like you to comment on what had changed and how this project managed to be withdrawn.