Mr. Speaker, the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board is overseeing drilling east of Newfoundland and Labrador. On May 20, this board announced that it was tightening up its oversight measures. That is what is happening now.
As I was saying, we are not working in silos. At the federal level, the National Energy Board is reviewing all of the regulations. We are happy that the Americans have suspended drilling in the north. In the end, they are exactly where we are now. There are currently no drilling permits in Canada, in the Beaufort Sea, in the Arctic waters. No drilling will be permitted before 2014. That gives us ample time to examine this issue and to fine-tune our regulations. The United States has also suspended its activities to take a closer look. Otherwise, there would have been drilling in six months.
This shows that we have a robust system. Our National Energy Board is an independent entity that has been in operation for years. We need to be careful. I think it is very dangerous that the opposition is trying to politicize this situation and to discredit responsible scientific agencies that are independent of the government, and whose job it is to enforce the strictest standards that best protect the environment.