They will be very brief, Mr. Chair, if that would be okay.
I was thinking of the term “shareholder” because it's been discussed. Kinder Morgan had a shareholder meeting the day of the court decision. I forget the exact number. Was it 99.5% that agreed? I want to meet the 0.5% who voted against the greatest swindle in private-public history. Canadians are wondering if they get a say in this, because, as has been indicated, we're shareholders too.
I understand Mr. Serré's point, and I was hoping an answer might be revealed today by the government as to whether they will commit to not appealing this decision. I don't know if committee members have read the court decision, but it's very instructive, very illuminating. Mr. Chair, I don't know if you have had time. It's quite long, and the piece around consultation is informative as well, because the Federal Court actually refers to the Supreme Court itself on its standard of the duty to consult. It would be worrisome to me if a federal government that prides itself on being the defender of the charter and our constitution would attempt to appeal a decision that is based exactly on constitutional rights that have been enshrined. I think the judges in their unanimous decision made something very important for us to know. It may be too soon. Mr. Serré probably doesn't have in his well-prepared notes whether or not the government has decided to appeal, but I hope they don't, because talk about throwing good money after bad.
There were some concerns from some of the groups participating in this review process early on that it was rigged, that it was set in one direction and in only one direction. We found out from the court's hearings now that, as my colleague Mr. Cannings said, the NEB, in what's called the phase three consultation, the consultation tacked on at the very end by the government, simply took notes but didn't believe they had the power to do anything about it. There's an irony that must be appreciated by my colleagues across the way and by Canadians that if the government had actually and sincerely listened to what was being said to them in that consultation round with indigenous peoples, they would know that the number one concern that was raised by every group was tanker traffic. The number one concern that was raised was tanker traffic.
It is somewhat ironic that this permission—the approval—was shot down on two things. One was the failure to properly consult, and the second one was not including tanker traffic in the decision that was put before cabinet. Here's the rub: There are some really sensitive species that would be impacted by this. The NEB did look at this. They didn't include it in their decision, but they did a little study of it and found out that the orca population in particular would be harmed by increased tanker traffic of 700% in the Salish Sea. If they had included that as part of their review, it would have triggered a federal law called SARA, the Species at Risk Act. It was almost as though the NEB and the federal government didn't want to invoke SARA by excluding tankers from their decision-making process.
This is where I will argue with my friend Mr. Poilievre, who says, “Justin Trudeau, Justin Trudeau”. It's a bit strange that a process that his government, while he sat at the cabinet table, along with the then prime minister and the now leader of the opposition in Alberta, Mr. Kenney, said was good for Canada, for all Canadians, I assume—maybe I shouldn't make that assumption—including indigenous peoples, has now categorically been shown to be a failure.
I have the quote from the current Prime Minister. When asked during the last campaign, in which we all participated, whether this pipeline we're talking about today would be put through a new review, a better review, he said yes. I might be gullible, but I believed him because it was a straightforward question and he gave a straightforward response. I thought, okay, because clearly the last way of making a decision, created by the last government, fails. It not only fails in court, but I believe it also fails with regard to our responsibilities as leaders in the country. So when Mr. Trudeau said that he would change it, and change it for Kinder Morgan as well, for the Trans Mountain, I believed him. And he didn't.
I didn't think Mr. Harper and Mr. Trudeau had so much in common. I am now seeing that—on this one issue, at least. It's not in terms of style, certainly. No one is going to accuse the two of them of being misidentified as each other. But in terms of substance, when it comes to pipelines, Canadians are going to ask themselves “What's the difference?”
I'll only say this, Chair, and end here. I know that this committee's time is precious. I used to sit on this committee. I enjoyed this committee, because I found it was one of those committees, maybe one of the rare ones in Parliament, where we could try to find common ground on things that were important to Canadians. The natural resource sector is important to Canadians.
I live in northwestern British Columbia. We knock down a lot of trees and kill a lot of fish. It's the way people put food on the table. Yet we've come to realize in the northwest that the shortcut—trying to skirt the law, trying to get quick approval for things that we think we desperately need right in the moment—doesn't work. It doesn't work in court, and it doesn't work in the long term for our economy that everybody has been talking about. Let's remind ourselves that what we're talking about is the federal government putting public money to extract resources in their rawest form to send overseas to be enhanced and then sold back to us, allegedly. It's economic suicide.
I think the committee is charged with this task. I hope the government takes this opportunity. As my grandmother used to say, never waste a good crisis. If people are feeling like this is a crisis, this is an emergency. How do we get product to market? How do we get things done?
I thought the lessons were pretty clear on the northern gateway pipeline, Chair, one that I was familiar with. We watched it go through the courts. We watched a bad consultation process. We felt the NEB was what was called a “captured regulator”. They weren't being fair to our communities in hearing our concerns. I thought the government would learn that lesson if they were so committed to moving oil in pipelines, yet here we are again. Another pipeline is trying to get to the west coast with a process that's not just legally flawed but I would say morally flawed, when we don't properly take up our responsibilities as legislators and make laws that obey our Constitution, which is what we see in front of us.
It's a crisis somewhat predicted and very unfortunate. It's creating, as you know, Chair, a lot of distress to our neighbours to the east, in Alberta. A lot of energy workers are wondering what the future holds. For those of us in British Columbia, we share very much with our Alberta cousins a passion for home and community, and a fierce pride in where we come from. We're defenders of where we come from. Unfortunately, it feels more and more like the laws and the way they're being interpreted pit one versus the other. That's unfortunate.
I hope we take up this study. I know that Mr. Cannings is a lot more thoughtful and considerate than I am and looks at these things deeply. I think this would be an opportunity for all our committee members to really dive into what went wrong here and what exactly the options are for the government. They don't seem to have much in the way of response today, and people sure are looking for one.
Thank you for that.