Thank you very much.
Mr. Bloomer, your presentation was very thought-provoking. For a time, I was the official opposition critic for natural resources. So I am quite familiar with the pipeline issue. I was also a member of the Standing Committee on Finance when changes were made to the way the National Energy Board operated. I agree with you. We need to have renewed confidence in a regulatory body like the National Energy Board. Unfortunately, that won't happen just because we wish it to. The changes made in 2012 and 2013 have resulted in the National Energy Board having only 15 months to study very complex projects that can often involve tens of thousands of pages of documents.
With the TransCanada project, we are already talking about more than 30,000 pages and consultations that have so far excluded many people. In the case of the Energy East Pipeline, in Quebec, about 90% of those who wanted to attend the hearings were denied the opportunity.
There is also a more problematic element when it comes to environmental assessment. In the past, environment departments would take care of environmental assessments for those projects. Now, the National Energy Board is responsible for conducting the environmental assessment, as if it was not enough for the board to study the project itself.
We want those projects to be socially acceptable and we want confidence in the National Energy Board to be renewed. I think that the changes made in 2012 and 2013 were detrimental in that regard. You are talking about reconsidering a part of the legislation that gives the government the right to make a decision that could go against the National Energy Board's recommendations. That change was proposed by the Conservative government. I think that if we back off when it comes to this, we should back off when it comes to all changes that have been made and perhaps review the National Energy Board's role to give it to the necessary tools to do a good job in order to give the government all the information it needs to make a well-informed decision.