Thank you, Chair.
Welcome to our guests today. It's always a very interesting conversation, Mr. Cory, when you show up to talk about the CIB.
Thanks for the update, by the way, on the number of projects that are moving forward—70 plus—and the amount of investment that has been generated because of that.
I want to focus on process. Before I do that and ask you a question, I just want to make reference to Muskrat Falls in Newfoundland and Labrador. You are probably well aware of what happened there.
It was announced as a $5.3-billion project to be built with taxpayer money. It turned out to be just about a $14-billion investment of taxpayer money, which the province really couldn't afford. It became the subject of a major inquiry. During that inquiry, it was determined that this project did not have due diligence. It did not have the necessary work that's being done, for example, by the CIB in a similar project that you are pursuing. It became very controversial.
Many people in the province are still angry about the fact that this was done with taxpayer dollars with very poor management over the period of years. It took twice as long to build as it should have. It was an unmitigated disaster, quite frankly. That's how people see it.
We, as the federal government, had to step in and assess Newfoundland and Labrador for that project; otherwise, electricity rates would have more than doubled or even tripled. It would have been a disaster for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
I want to ask you to tell the committee the process that your team goes through when they receive a project proposal. What are the things that you do as due diligence?