Okay, and I want to pick up on that again.
When our government made decisions on energy projects, be they mining projects or pipelines—in question period you like to tell me how much further ahead you are—we approved the Northern Gateway based on the National Energy Board recommendation. We also denied Prosperity mine and New Prosperity mine when the independent environmental assessment process made that decision based on science, not on the politics of it.
Speaking to your decision to kill Northern Gateway, based again on the political considerations....
Brian Lee Crowley, the managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute said:
This throws the entire process into great confusion...I think [it] creates a huge disincentive for people to want to risk their money on pipelines in Canada because we've gone from a predictable, rules-based system to one where the outcome depends on whether the Prime Minister of Canada thinks your pipeline runs through a forest...he likes.
Can you explain this to me? It's a great talking point, the Great Bear Rainforest and the Douglas Channel, but it isn't based on science.
On the Trans Mountain pipeline, the Prime Minister said in his announcement that we would consider zero political arguments and that there would be no political arguments that would be allowed to stand. This is based on the NEB decision. The ministerial advisory panel that you set up—and we have no idea how much that cost Canadians—delayed the project by months. It did not affect a single of the 157 recommendations made by the NEB review board that was set up previously.
Why did you abandon that process that you used for Trans Mountain? You used the NEB process for Trans Mountain to justify it and said, “this is based on evidence”, and “this is based on science”, and “no political arguments will stand”. Then you went with completely political arguments against the Northern Gateway pipeline. I think that industry is having a tough time reconciling that. I think investors in this country will have a tough time reconciling that.
As we move towards energy east, a pipeline that the New Brunswick Premier has said that he wants to see, how can you assure investors? How can you assure the company that they won't spend, like the Northern Gateway pipeline did, $600 million only to have the project gonged and 4,000 jobs killed because the Prime Minister of Canada thinks your pipeline runs through a forest he likes?