Mr. Speaker, Bill C-6 before the House today is in fact a piece of legislation the previous government did not have time to pass and which died several times on the Order Paper.
Essentially, this bill only gives legal basis to the role currently played by the National Energy Board ever since its merger with the Canada Oil and Gas Lands Administration in 1991.
As my colleague from Matapédia-Matane said earlier, the Bloc Quebecois approves the principle of the bill and will vote for it at the second reading stage. However, to put things into perspective, I would like to mention that the terms of reference of the NEB was, as recently as last week, challenged before the Supreme Court of Canada.
My colleague from Matapédia-Matane also reviewed the new constitutional realities concerning the need to conduct environmental impact assessments on any hydro projects undertaken for foreign markets. We are anxiously waiting for the decision the National Energy Board will should make, following the ruling of the Supreme Court, as to the need to extend such assessments to gas and oil exportation projects.
Of course, if Quebec becomes sovereign, we should be free of this control over our interests. In the meantime, we think it is crucial to promote and defend the interests of Quebec within the current federal system. Defending Quebec's interests does not prevent us in any way from also defending and promoting the interests of Canadians and the rest of Canada, provided, of course, that theirs are fully compatible with ours and are in no way against Quebec's interests.
Yesterday, my colleague from Rimouski-Témiscouata brilliantly demonstrated this when she defended the cultural interests of English Canada against excessive control by American publishing multinationals. The Leader of the Official Opposition himself does not fail opportunity to stand up for common interests of Canada and Quebec in his speeches which attract considerable attention, including his stand on the presence of Canadian UN troops in Bosnia.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who took the advice of the Bloc Quebecois and yesterday extended for another six months the mandate of our UN troops in Bosnia.
But to come back to the issue of oil and gas development, there is a subject which involves the financial interests of all Canadians and Quebecers. I am talking about the Hibernia megaproject, of which our friends in the Reform Party have just spoken.
Left to market forces alone-and I think members of the Reform Party will fully agree on this-the Hibernia project would never have come about. It exists only because two governments, this one and the one before, persisted in investing billions of dollars in this venture whose outcome nobody can predict. Such quandering of public funds should give the shivers to anyone in this House who takes taxpayers' interests to heart.
In fact, what worries me most about the Hibernia adventure is the extremely high financial risk. Just think that Chevron, Mobil and Murphy, the oil companies that are partners in that venture, have so little confidence in it that they demand that the federal government, and ultimately the Canadian taxpayers, bear a huge share of the financial risk.
Notwithstanding the heated debate on the relative cost of each barrel extracted from the Hibernia and Avalon oilfields compared to the international price, one has to admit that it takes an act of faith to believe that the project will ultimately be
profitable. As a professor at Memorial University said so eloquently: "We are down to gut feelings and faith about it".
The profitability of that project, if it is ever profitable, can only be marginal at best. Moreover, the rate of return depends on unpredictable fluctuations in three distinct and very important factors. The first is the quantity of oil that can really be extracted from this field. The second is the final cost of building and operating the gigantic drilling rig. The third, which is both the most unpredictable and the determining factor, is the price of oil in 1997, the year when production is supposed to begin, and during the productive life of the field, which is 15 years.
I could refrain from mentioning the risks of environmental disasters that are never desirable but always possible, but I have to raise the issue of the safety of the platform itself, which will be towed 300 kilometres off the coast of St. John's, right in the middle of what is referred to today as Iceberg Alley, in the area where the Titanic sank in 1912. The risks of disaster are so great that it seems impossible for the promoters of the project to insure the platform for its full value in case a disaster should occur. So it is obviously something important.
It seems to me that Canadian taxpayers should not have to trust the federal government blindly, as it is asking them to do. They should be informed of all the costs and the great risks associated with this project. After all, it is the money of Canadian and Quebec taxpayers that the government is throwing at this project to prevent it from sinking.
The money invested by the federal government on behalf of taxpayers currently exceeds $3 billion in direct grants, loan guarantees, interest payments and direct equity participation in this project. And I would remind all Canadians who are listening to this debate that $1 billion equals $1,000 million. So, $3 billion means that the federal government is asking Canadians to trust it with a $3,000 million investment in a single project, over and above the hundreds of millions it has already invested in activities related to the exploration and development of resources off Canada's east coast.
In one of his recent annual reports, the Auditor General of Canada expressed legitimate concern about Hibernia. He said that it was a high risk venture due to fluctuating prices as well as technological and environmental issues. The Auditor General's analysis is still valid today, and even more so during a period of fiscal restrictions, when we are making deep cuts in unemployment insurance. Billions of dollars, thousands of millions, have been invested in high risk ventures based on faith but, when cutbacks are needed, we do not hesitate to cut benefits to the unemployed. This government seems to think that unemployed people are the problem.
If I brought up the issue of Hibernia today, it is probably because I am wary. The Bloc Quebecois is not in power and has no ambition in that direction; that is quite obvious. We cannot stop this massive investment of public funds in a high risk venture based on faith. However, as the Official Opposition, we will fight to ensure that, should this project go forward, it will generate as much economic activity as possible in Canada and Quebec. It is the least we can do.
We will hound this Liberal government to ensure that subcontracts promised to Canadian and Quebec businesses by the previous government and the Hibernia consortium will be honoured and, if possible, maximized.
As for other megaprojects whose profitability is more than doubtful, the Bloc Quebecois will defend the interests of Canadian and Quebec taxpayers.
In short, the Bloc Quebecois will support Bill C-6 at second reading. We will look into the legitimate complaints that will eventually be brought to our attention before or during the committee stage of this bill.
(Motion agreed to, bill read the second time and referred to a committee.)