Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here and for taking the time to answer our questions.
My line of questioning is going to revolve around what's important for my community of Vaudreuil—Soulanges. There are others in this room who will speak to the economic benefits, particularly for Alberta and British Columbia, from the construction of the pipeline or the expansion. There will be those who will speak to indigenous partnerships and the share of the roughly $30 billion that was provided to indigenous communities and the indigenous-led businesses that have benefited from it.
My line of questioning is more so around the environment and the protection of the environment, as well as security.
I'll start off with the environment. We know that, if you're going to transport oil, the most efficient way to do it is by pipeline as opposed to rail. The stats show it's two times safer, which I'll get to in a second, but also, over long distances, much more efficient. Therefore, we're going to see some significant savings there with regard to GHG emissions.
In addition to that, all of the emissions that are projected to be created by this pipeline are going to be and have already been captured in Canada's climate plan, so these aren't a kind of external.... These are already factored in. That's the good news, and I've shared that with my constituents.
The question I have for you is this: Above and beyond the fact that we're doing it in the most environmentally sustainable way in terms of GHGs and the fact that it's already factored into Canada's emissions target and plan, what other key tools have been put in place to ensure this protects the environment in the best way possible?