Statement made on 10 May 2012 by Senator Grant Mitchell
Hon. Grant Mitchell:
Honourable senators, critical to developing markets for our oil and to getting permission to build our many projects is the social licence that we get from people, from societies, from countries to allow us to do these projects.
Counterintuitively, in the process of trying to sell the Keystone or Northern Gateway pipelines, this government has cut 1,700 jobs from the Department of the Environment, cut countless numbers of scientists — to the point where people are really worrying about the scientific credibility of that department — cut countless research stations that have been focused on climate change, shut down the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, attacked environmental charities in Canada, attacked international environmental foundations, diminished the environment review process, and delayed regulations on the oil sands.
What possible good can it do to send that kind of message to Canadians, to the world of people concerned about our projects and to the people who need to give us social licence so we can sell our products and build our projects? It does not make any sense.
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