Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Saskatchewan is my previous neighbour on the same floor in the Confederation Building. We have had many opportunities to talk about various issues.
With regard to the defining difference the member raised, we are looking at banning persistent oils under a definition that is internationally recognized. These oils, once they enter a marine or terrestrial environment, are very difficult to dissipate. With non-persistent oils, such as the natural gas he mentioned, if there is an incident there is a greater rate of evaporation, which makes it easier to minimize the environmental impacts in that type of operation.
As we do with all our legislation in the House, this balances the economic opportunities for the region with the environmental protections, which are also the backbone of the economic activities in the region today.