Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would agree with my colleague Mr. Shields.
In a previous committee meeting, I mentioned protection zones and how they would affect certain water bodies. In my riding, as an example, we have the Peace River. It goes from Alberta to B.C. and all the way up into the Northwest Territories, where it exits into the Arctic. Along the way, it affects many things—I used this example too, but I'll state it again—such as natural gas.
The reason we have a natural gas project on the west coast of B.C. is the natural gas from my riding. It only makes its way there because exploration has been done and production has happened, and they needed water to produce that natural gas. If we put a protection zone anywhere near the Peace River, it would affect any potential new development on natural gas.
Natural gas, by the way, is great for the environment in that it reduces emissions around the world, as long as we can get it to the world. Any kind of limitation that we put around that source water—that would be the Peace River or any water coming from the Peace River—would have some pretty dramatic effects, not just in the province of B.C., but in Alberta and, really, globally. That's how a simple piece of legislation can have some pretty severe impacts on any new development.
Lastly, I'd add to this statement that it affects first nations. A lot of first nations along the way have had economic prosperity and opportunity because of natural gas. If we're going to limit that as well.... Again, just a simple phrase—two words in a piece of government legislation—can have some wide and vast negative consequences.
Thank you.