Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Liberal Party was in fact in my riding on September 3, and more specifically in Rimouski. He was asked about the project. I have a quotation from Le Devoir in which he said the following, after the first injunction: “I think that with the judgment of the Court [in favour of the drilling] and with the support of the provincial government, we should go ahead.”
Shortly after that, during the interview, he was informed that there was controversy about the environmental aspect of the project. At that point, he changed his mind and said that a balance would have to be struck between the environment and the economy, that the transportation would have to be done responsibly, and that the Liberals were concerned about climate change. However, what he needed to understand was that there were serious problems relating to the environment and that there was a major controversy. For the moment, the statement by the leader of the Liberal Party is, as the title of the article says, that he “supports the Energy East pipeline project”.
In the midst of such a controversy, he should have been better informed, because the question was extremely important for the region and for our two ridings.