I can respond. You raised the issue of the reliability of the electricity system, and 2003 was a wake-up call for a lot of people in eastern North America, certainly in Ontario.
A lot has been done since then in terms of addressing the rules in North America, by working through the North American Electric Reliability Council, for instance, and setting it up as an international rules developer to maintain and operate the bulk transmission system. A lot of good technical work has gone on to try to prevent the cascading failure we had.
The federal government can do things. It was active in a bilateral relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy, but it also plays a key role in electricity development. Notwithstanding the provincial predominance in this field, there are virtually no major projects we can do that don't trigger certain federal powers, particularly environmental assessment rules, navigable waters, etc.
Part of the challenge in developing a major hydro project is how long it takes to get permits in place before you build. Most major projects can take somewhere in the range of ten to fifteen years to develop. That lead time leaves a lot of potential for market demand to absorb any surpluses and then put pressure on the system before the new resources are available.
From the federal government's point of view, if we have policy coherence and understand what we're trying to accomplish with respect to our energy systems from a policy point of view, then with that framework well-established in partnership with the provinces, the issue becomes that of regulatory efficiency and coordination. We're not arguing for less regulation or less stringent regulation, but for timely regulation, for processes that are time-bound in their commitments to get the job done and to coordinate with other jurisdictions that have the power to influence these projects. That would be an important step forward. Coordinating the multiple federal regulatory processes--because despite attempts at a one-window approach they aren't perfectly integrated--and then coordinating the federal and provincial regulatory processes so that project proponents can expect to have the whole package of requirements clear to them...that should all happen within a two-year timeframe, or something of that order.