The House

The great pipeline debate

This week on The House, pipeline politics dominated the first week of Parliament's return. Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr, the president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs Stewart Phillip and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna all join us.
The ministers of Natural Resources and the Environment and Climate Change announced transitional rules for pipeline project approvals today in Ottawa. (Enbridge)

This week on The House, the debate that exploded last week over the Energy East pipeline project -- pitting East versus West -- ended up serving as the backdrop to Parliament's return. In the face of mounting pressure, the government announced on Wednesday an interim environmental assessment and consultation process for projects already under review. But will it be enough to satisfy opponents and proponents of pipelines? And what further changes does the government have in mind? Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr joins us. Then, the president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, shares his ongoing concerns over the evaluation of pipeline projects.


Following a meeting with her provincial counterparts, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna also joins us to discuss the challenge of coming up with a Canadian climate change plan. Is it possible to be an energy producer and lead the way on reducing emissions?

Tough week for Big Brother. Both Canada's domestic spy agency -- CSIS -- and electronic spy agency -- CSE -- ended up in the spotlight for having mishandled Canadians' personal information. How concerned should Canadians be about all this? And what does it say about the government's ability to handle your personal information? Our guest is Ann Cavoukian, Executive Director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University and a former Ontario Privacy Commissioner.

Finally, In House panelists Joel-Denis Bellavance and Susan Delacourt join us to discuss Parliament's return. And CBC Senior Correspondent Peter Mansbridge pays us a special visit.