Mr. Speaker, the natural resources committee has been holding hearings as a result of the very dramatic and traumatic effects of the gulf oil spill. This motion, while it is not immediately predicated on the events down there, has vision and is looking at the whole regime that exists.
The worry that some members of the committee have had is that the industry appears to be taking a wait and see approach, maybe thinking that a little bit of a tightening up of the regulations would help in this respect, and waiting to see what happens with respect to the technological approach being taken to the spill in the gulf.
More and more it seems that parallel drilling of a relief well is superior in every sense and that the act should be amended so that the regulations stipulate before drilling permits are allowed that such a well must be drilled at the same time. It appears that the experience in the gulf is coming to the same conclusion.
Would the member like to comment on the National Energy Board's hearings and whether the seriousness of the more dramatic impacts is actually going to be taken into consideration, or whether there is just going to be an imbalance toward the needs and concerns of the industry, as opposed to the higher interests of Canadians with respect to what we are learning as we go forward from that oil spill in the gulf?