Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Davenport for his very timely question in view of the high world price of oil, because the more we can increase the supply and usage of our renewable fuels the less we will depend on oil, which not only is very high in price but which also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
I am very pleased to report that over the last two years we have allocated $118 million toward the construction of 11 new ethanol plants across Canada. These will increase our annual production by seven times, enough to meet the target by 2006.