In my view, the issues surrounding the Arctic have some unique features: the ice, the risk to boats or oil platforms of moving ice packs, the extreme cold, the distance from populated areas, the scarcity of equipment, the difficulty of rescues, the problems with an oil spill cleanup. To me, the Arctic has a distinct set of problems, some of which are similar, but some of which are different from the problems we find in other Canadian waters.
As to Mr. Blais's amendment to include the Gulf of St. Lawrence, I think that once we start to include non-Arctic waters, there is nothing to keep us from studying all waters. A counter-argument might be that there isn't a formal plan to explore for oil and gas on the west coast, but there is no formal limitation on such explorations. In fact, the provincial NDP party, not that long ago, had a premier that was a big proponent of exploring for oil and gas on the British Columbian coast.
I understand and I respect Mr. Blais's concern for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but I think either this is about the Arctic, because of its unique features, or it is a more general study that includes all Canadian waters.