Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to start off by reading something into the record, because I want to correct the record.
As part of the honour of being the member of Parliament for Sydney—Victoria, I get to represent the Mi’kmaq community of Membertou, which is a part of the EverWind project. The EverWind CEO said:
Without the passage of Bill C-49, a powerful message will be sent to industry that politics killed a critical green industry and denied Atlantic Canada a chance to join economies around the world investing in Offshore Wind.
We implore our political leaders to support this critical work with the passage of Bill C-49.
I know that the minister just read off that the premiers are very much in support of this in the Atlantic. We have indigenous communities calling for it, as well as industry. It seems like there is quite a bit of support for this, and I just wanted to correct the record from what the Conservatives were saying on this.
Also, I wanted to contrast a little bit from their general narrative on this legislation, starting off, Minister Guilbeault, by thanking you for your environmental activism in your life. As a Mi’kmaq person, I've grown up with the indigenous knowledge that we are connected to the land. We belong to it and we consider ourselves the original stewards of the land. Within our language, we have a word, netukulimk, which makes it clear that we have a duty and responsibility to our environment.
Like yourself, I was an activist. I remember, during the Conservative Harper era, being a part of the Idle No More protests. The Conservatives had gutted environmental regulations, and they had failed to protect our oceans. In fact, they had only protected 1% of the oceans that were out there.
I wonder if you could give a little bit of a sense of why it's important for us to take steps to protect our oceans and to ensure that we are reaching our goal of protecting 30% of our marine protected areas by 2030? Why is this going to have a tremendous benefit, not only to the world but to the Atlantic?