Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I would just like to again get on the agenda that we've made a number of requests both to the minister and to the department for providing information. We hope that we all receive it. My request was on a breakdown on the MPMO for B.C.
Mr. Deputy, I noticed in the information that was provided initially on the new MPMO in Vancouver that it says it is for B.C. and Alberta and then it sort of shifts over to just talking about meeting B.C. interests and issues. One of the major project areas in energy and resources that is completely missing from the agenda in federal intervention is the thousand-fold increase in rail shipping of bitumen and other petroleum products.
There was a recent issue in Alberta where essentially we have this legal fiction. The bitumen from the oil sands is being exported partly by pipeline to north of Edmonton and then by rail to the United States. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation asked that there be a National Energy Board review because it was an export of a petroleum product. They were told that it doesn't classify as an NEB project.
I wonder if you could speak to that. Increasing amounts of the product are being shipped by rail and will probably continue to because there would be long-term contracts we can anticipate. Is the government starting to reconsider the mandate for the National Energy Board and to include the review of rail shipments including exports of petroleum products?