Mr. Speaker, I will start by thanking my friend for the vote of confidence that I might have the several billion dollars required to advance a pipeline project, but I am afraid that is not within my capacities.
Were circumstances and all things equal, I would absolutely be prepared to be a proponent for a pipeline project. I believe in pipelines. Our country has well in excess of 100,000 kilometres of pipelines operating safely beneath our soil, right now, this minute. The reason I think Canadians generally are not aware of that is that these pipelines operate safely, without incident, on an ongoing, daily basis. They have for decades, in many cases. We have had the luxury of forgetting about them.
The question of public money is an important one. I do not believe there should be any public money in a pipeline. In fact, I do not believe there is any necessity for that. As long as the regulation is appropriate and the government is out of the way, the private sector will take care of this.