Permit me to refer back to about 18 years ago, when I was a minister in a previous government. In those days, when we looked at the potential of Hibernia, there were a lot of naysayers around about the prospect of developing the oil and gas sector in Atlantic Canada, especially in Newfoundland and Labrador.
If you look back almost 20 years later you will see how vindicated we have been about those prospects, because we now have an oil and gas sector and energy sector that has developed and is developing a lot of potential, but what was maybe missing then was the four provinces pulling together and looking at the prospects of economic opportunities and development in the future, with an eye to Atlantic Canada.
ACOA has been instrumental in creating this energy gateway, where you have all four provinces working towards shared goals. ACOA is leading this initiative, which is bringing results, as we have seen. The accord between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, for example, to see the execution of the Muskrat Falls project is, I believe, a result of the good work of the energy gateway.
It creates other opportunities because these supply chains, once established…. In order to partake in them you have to elevate your skills, your competence as small or medium sized businesses. You have to be competitive and adopt new technologies. It creates great potential, which I think will continue for decades to come in Atlantic Canada.
As a matter of fact, in budget 2012, the Coasting Trade Act, which was preventing seismic activity over the North Atlantic, is going to be amended to allow for more exploration in the Atlantic, and thus yield, we hope, better results and other development possibilities of fields that can be exploited.