Mr. Speaker, in the throne speech, the Liberals reiterated that only one environmental assessment per project is necessary. In other words, for a dirty oil pipeline from Alberta to Quebec to be subject to a single assessment, the federal government would impose its own and bypass Quebec and the provinces.
However, Quebec is master of its own house. Quebeckers and their institutions, such as the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement, or BAPE, are the ones that must decide on projects that go through Quebec. The BAPE's primacy and Quebec's sovereignty over its territory are non-negotiable. Will the government commit to respecting them?