Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members, for inviting me to be here in front of the committee to talk about offshore matters generally. I've had an opportunity in the last three or four days to examine the bill. The bill is a complex piece of legislation. Somebody has worked hard—m

Natural Resources committee  I think it will, because when things are formalized in legislation, rather than being decisions of boards and people and operators and unions, they become very real and they must be followed and you can't depart from them. You can't depart from legislation that comes from the Par

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question. In a way, yes it is. Some of the themes that have come up in this legislation—and I suspect a lot of this was formulated before I became commissioner—are familiar to me because they came through the inquiry process. Yes, there are some things that dovetai

Natural Resources committee  I'll need three or four minutes, okay?

Natural Resources committee  Where did I learn what had happened? It grew out of the Piper Alpha disaster when Lord Cullen made certain recommendations. Out of that came the concept, which was adopted in the U.K., and shortly afterward in Norway, of a separate safety entity, call it an authority, or what you

Natural Resources committee  It was.

Natural Resources committee  And 25 years....

Natural Resources committee  I can't really say why the Ocean Ranger recommendation, which was quite clear, was not adopted. I suspect it was because it was during the exploration stage. Then things changed; exploration ceased and about 15 years ago production started. When the Ocean Ranger happened there wa

Natural Resources committee  I'd like to comment first on the helicopter. It went down backwards toward the ocean and it got to within 38 feet or something before the pilot recovered control. I didn't know and had not heard that the C-NLOPB had made a statement. When I was contacted by the media, I said we

Natural Resources committee  It was known, but it wasn't known fully. With everything in Canada, really, you have to wait, including train disasters, for example. Take the Lac-Mégantic derailment, which the Transportation Safety Board is obviously working on now. We won't know what really happened for mayb

Natural Resources committee  They're at risk too. Lives have been lost in that situation also. So there are greater dangers, but sometimes, as I put it in my report, night flights are an imperative. When night flights are an imperative, in my view they shouldn't be scheduled. Rather, a committee, or a grou

Natural Resources committee  You're very kind.

Natural Resources committee  The problem was recognized first, or at least formally recognized, by Lord Cullen, arising out of Piper Alpha. The people who make the rules and give the permission to explore and to develop may have a certain mindset, and within the same organization there is a group who has to

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chairman, am I talking too long?

Natural Resources committee  Okay, well, I'll watch you and you stop me if I'm going on too long.