Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll just echo the chair's appreciation to the witnesses for being here.
I'm rather caught in an unusual situation. We heard yesterday that the Province of New Brunswick is looking very seriously at establishing a regime that would benefit New Brunswick. They cited the added value in the development of shale gas. The minister also indicated that they were establishing an environmental assessment regime that would look into the issue of balancing the community's concerns against the economic advantages.
In your presentation, Mr. Bonin, you referred to Quebec's Sustainable Development Act. If there is a moratorium, what approach would an environmental assessment take? What kinds of concerns would you be looking at balancing out, given the premise that this committee is charged with energy security for Canada, and Quebec has a huge role to play in that? In the environmental assessment in Quebec's Sustainable Development Act, what would you be looking at assessing from a Quebec perspective? To extrapolate that a little more, how do you see the development of shale gas and Quebec's hydro contributing to the national higher interest, if you will?