As I set out in my presentation, the unionized labour and the unionized contractors were not engaged in this project until the government got involved. It's important to keep that in mind.
The second piece to keep in mind is that we need to look at energy east as a national pipeline project. TC Energy invested billions of dollars into that project with absolutely nothing to show for it.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that today we have this piece of pipeline infrastructure that is completed to the highest standards anywhere in the world and is now able to get our resources to market. We can discuss the cost overruns as much as you want. We easily could have been here discussing cost overruns on a project that wasn't completed, but this project now is in service. I think it's imperative for this committee to not lose sight of that fact.
Construction costs are high in Canada, but they're high because we pay defined benefit pensions to our members. We pay health and welfare plans to our members. We pay excellent wages to our members. Construction costs are high in Canada because there's an expectation that when people go to work in Canada they get wages that are reflective of the services they bring to the situation.