Mr. Speaker, on November 30, 2004, during question period, I rose in this honourable House and asked the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development a question in relation to the Mackenzie Valley pipeline and, in particular, the regulatory confusion surrounding the pipeline and which currently imperils it and which imperils not only the pipeline but the prospect of economic progress for the aboriginal Canadians who are affected by that pipeline and which indeed threatens the resolution of environmental issues concerning the pipeline as well.
The minister's response at that time was that he was working together with the President of the Treasury Board on the smart regulations report that the government had received and that he was attempting, with the President of the Treasury Board, to define a regulatory regime in the north for the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline.
More than two months have passed since that time and virtually no progress has been made. I am again asking the minister to tell the House and Canadians what he has done to advance one of Canada's most important energy projects.
The project is immense, by any standard. The required capital investment for the pipeline and the associated infrastructure will be over $7.5 billion. The project will result in an enormous increase to the overall Canadian gross domestic product of more than $57 billion. The total direct and indirect employment resulting from this project has been estimated at 157,000 person years. Yet, today the project is mired in morass, in a regulatory miasma created by this government.
Just recently, in the past week or so, the joint review panel provided the proponents of the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline with its second round of information requests, in effect, following up on the massive submission that was filed as required. Those information requests are over 600 in number and follow on the first information requests, which were of a similar size and scale.
Clearly, the result is that valuable time has been lost. Originally, the in-service date for the pipeline was 2009 and the economics of the pipeline were predicated upon that. That date has now slipped to 2010 or even 2011.
Surely the government understands that whether this important Canadian pipeline gets built at all depends upon the resolution of the environmental issues, the regulatory issues and the aboriginal issues which are now swirling around this pipeline. Only the Government of Canada can resolve these issues.
The authority for the statement I have made is not myself but rather the government's own external advisory committee, the smart regulation report, which describes the northern regulatory framework as the “...complex and unpredictable cobweb of regulations involving multiple federal government departments, and territorial and Aboriginal authorities.
Could the minister assure Canadians that the government will take the necessary steps to ensure that the Mackenzie Valley project maintains its competitive advantage over the American pipeline? Will he assure Canadians that the Deh Cho settlement negotiations will be resolved? The government has been very quiet on that front. I would ask the member to please advise the House on what is happening. Could he also tell the House when the regulatory confusion will be resolved and will he report to us on the status of the access and benefit agreements which the proponents have been endeavouring to negotiate?