Thank you for the question, Mr. Lawrence. It's a good question.
You're right when you identify the operation of those particular clauses. In no discussions that I was in, or that I participated in, was exempting requirements under the conflict of interest and ethics act, for example, which would be a piece of legislation that obviously you're referring to. As the minister who would be designated as responsible for this act, I can't imagine that in the course of my recommendation to cabinet that would be the kind of exemption we're looking at. I obviously would, in any circumstance, be governed by the advice we would get from officials from the Privy Council Office and the Ethics Commissioner in those circumstances.
I get the hypothetical question you're asking, and I've seen you and your colleagues raise these concerns in different fora elsewhere. I just think that it feels very hypothetical that we would be approving a national project and look to exempt the responsibilities of any member of Parliament, public office holder or member of cabinet from the ethics obligations. I wouldn't ever do that myself. I wouldn't go to cabinet with that kind of recommendation, but I take your point.