Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to carry on where I left off after my last question.
But first I want to say once again that I appreciated a comment Mr. Blakely made when he said, “The truth is, we live here”.
Whether we are legislators or regulators or shareholders of a company, those who are building the pipelines or working for those corporations, we all live here and we all desire to ensure that projects are only approved if they are safe for Canadians and safe for the environment.
Prior to this legislation, our government brought forward new fines for companies that break our strict environmental laws. These fines were meant to be a tool that the NEB could use to ensure companies were penalized for contraventions of NEB regulations or orders.
The measures in this act build on those previous measures by enhancing and further clarifying these provisions. For example, companies operating major crude oil pipelines will now be subject to the absolute liability up to $1 billion. I want to note that still in the event that a company is found negligent or at fault, there is unlimited liability as well. This should eliminate any residual uncertainty about which party is responsible for cleanup costs and damages if an incident occurs.
Mr. Donihee, what has been your experience with industry, with members of your organization? Have you found that companies are willing to clean up and remediate after a spill, that they're willing to shoulder the costs?