Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all of our witnesses.
I would like to continue the questioning with respect to what we heard from the last witness deputations on the state of the National Energy Board's review with respect to legislation and emergency response. I'm particularly compelled to do that, as Mr. McCurdy has referred to that culture of complacency and has talked about the integration of the environment as everyone's concern. He also said that there should be a plan in advance.
My question is related to the testimony that we heard from the National Energy Board. Mr. Caron said this:
A critical requirement for offshore drilling, which is set out in section 6 of the Canada oil and gas drilling and production regulations, is the need for companies to provide an emergency response plan, which is reviewed in detail by the NEB before any drilling authorization may be issued. If there are gaps
—and I stress this—
in the plan, the company would have to address these gaps before the board would consider permitting the drilling to occur.
Then he went on to say:
The new U.S. regulations also call for industry to develop an integrated safety and environmental management system. Canada's regulations already require operators to have safety and environmental management systems. In other words, the United States is moving towards where Canada has been.
We heard testimony from the last witness, Mr. Amos from Ecojustice, that they were doing a gap analysis in the United States. According to the testimony of the NEB, they're quite satisfied that they have already done the gap analysis in terms of response.
My question is perhaps to you, Mr. Corey. Are you satisfied with the position taken by the National Energy Board? Are officials from Natural Resources monitoring the review that's taking place in terms of where those gaps are, as indicated by witness testimony, and is the legislation being adjusted accordingly? Are we monitoring those hearings and are we going to have follow-up in terms of this committee's role, or any committee's role, in closing the accountability loop?