Mr. Speaker, during the election campaign, the now Minister of Veterans Affairs held an ask me anything meeting. In it somebody asked him if he was anti-development, if he was going to stave off the concerns of constituents who think that he might not support pipelines, or if he was inconsistent. He said that he would pound on the table to support pipelines.
Yet, the member, when he came into the House, and had the opportunity to vote in support of pipeline development and Energy East, rejected that. He voted against it, so there was no pounding on the table.
Can my colleague talk about the detrimental impact of the Liberals' inconsistency on support for the energy sector, and what that has meant for investment?
I know my colleague talks to a lot of people who work in the sector. Could he talk a little bit about how the Liberals' policy in terms of changing the regulatory environment has shied away investment?
Could he also talk about why it is so important for Canada to lower our taxes and become more competitive, especially in light of the fact that the American administration has said that it wants to move toward a lower regulatory burden to encourage investment in that area?