Statement made on 03 June 2010 by Senator Terry Mercer
Hon. Terry M. Mercer:
Honourable senators, the oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico and last week President Obama imposed a six-month moratorium on new offshore drilling permits while a panel investigates the causes of the accident and reviews the regulations that are currently in place.
After saying for years that his government would wait and see what the United States would do on the environmental front instead of putting forward a made-in-Canada policy, it would have been reasonable to expect the Prime Minister to take a similar position to that of President Obama.
As a senator from Nova Scotia, I understand the value of such projects, but I also have major concerns about the environmental and safety precautions we have in place to protect us from such disasters as we now see happening in the Gulf of Mexico.
Why is the federal government unwilling to take the time to ensure that we have the highest level of safety and environmental protections to prevent such disasters in our own waters?
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