Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I mentioned in my brief notes that the notion of greater engineering input into public policy would be helpful. I'll give you an example.
There are rapidly changing technologies in a lot of areas, not just in information and communication technologies. I'll give you an example that has to do with natural gas. In 2008 or 2007, natural gas prices were going up. We thought there wouldn't be enough natural gas in many parts of the world. We were gearing up to actually build LNG plants to import natural gas to B.C. and to Alberta simply to serve the needs of various industries, including the oil sands industry.
The dramatic introduction of the fracking process, which industry insiders were aware of, completely transformed the landscape of natural gas. Those who were aware of the research and those who were aware of the investments—the venture capitalists, the industry people, and the people who were building LNG plants—knew what was happening. If the government could integrate that kind of information into its policy framework sometimes, to facilitate the investment in large infrastructure, that could benefit Canada from a competitive position. We would be there first, so to speak. I think that would be very helpful.
I use the natural gas example as one example to illustrate the fact that we're not always talking about information and communication technologies that are rapidly evolving. Many things are rapidly evolving. My colleague spoke about the oil sands. Things are rapidly evolving there.
That's just an idea that might be helpful.