Mr. Speaker, two years ago the Conservatives gutted the process by which we approve new oil pipelines, eliminating the voices of ordinary people and tilting the process to favour companies.
It is so bad that many Canadians who might have their homes expropriated cannot even send a letter to the National Energy Board to express their objections.
Disturbingly, the Liberals completely back these Conservative process changes. The Liberal leader says, “So I'm very much a proponent of Keystone XL” and “I am...very interested in the Kinder Morgan pipeline.... I certainly hope that we're going to be able to get that pipeline approved....”
The last few weeks have seen the arrests of over 100 ordinary people who oppose Kinder Morgan's plan to build a new pipeline through our community. These are not radicals, but regular people who have been silenced by the Conservatives' changes to the approval process, changes that the Liberals support.
I went to Burnaby Mountain ten times over the course of the recent turmoil and have spoken many times in the House to the stress these changes have caused.
It is clear that the NDP is the only choice for Burnaby voters in the next election, as we are the only party to stand with them.