Natural Resources committee  In terms of the numbers, I don't have them right before me. But it's very clearly scientific jobs, environmental engineering jobs, engineering jobs on the petroleum side, very clearly, in terms of regulatory practices and reviews, jobs that come forth from there; and it's very clearly jobs that emanate from the manufacturing sector and so on.

Natural Resources committee  Canada is very innovative in developing gas and oil. Martin, perhaps you can talk about our innovations, such as Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) and other aspects.

Natural Resources committee  We have a pretty comprehensive piece that we can provide specifically on some of the innovations around tailings and tailings management. Just to expand on the question for a minute or two, Canada is seen as a world leader for sure in terms of its innovative ability to develop these resources.

Natural Resources committee  From oil and gas, period, the job figures and overall growth are enormous. Across the country...350,000 jobs that I had mentioned off the top, when you look at adding in induced employment versus direct. We know for a fact, as I ran the table earlier, that each province has a play when it comes to that.

Natural Resources committee  I don't know if anybody else has anecdotal or specific information from Medicine Hat, or otherwise, on the examples that have been provided.

Natural Resources committee  It is difficult to determine exactly the number of jobs connected to risk management, but the fact is that the natural resources sector directly and indirectly accounts for 18% of the gross national product. That percentage might give you an idea. Furthermore, as you pointed out, when a project is initiated, an environmental assessment is carried out.

Natural Resources committee  It's a challenging question to answer because you're asking us to break down some big numbers and give them to you from a local context.

Natural Resources committee  Sorry; I'm just getting to the components on the strategy.

Natural Resources committee  Sorry. So specific on refining?

Natural Resources committee  In terms of an overall energy strategy, what I would say just off the top—I think you got to it in the second part—is that we're a little different from many of the other international players around the world in that we're a market-based system, and we're very lucky to have that system.

Natural Resources committee  Upgrading and refining.... Sorry, I was dancing on the other part of the question, which is what is the strategy, the overall national energy plan. I thought you were asking about that. There are components we are driving forward on. I'm not sure we would label it so much a national plan as an action plan to get things done.

Natural Resources committee  Maybe we'll start with a few statistics that could be helpful. In New Brunswick, there was $19 million GDP in 2011 in direct economic benefits of the oil sands; Quebec, $317 million in direct economic benefits of the oil sands. To come back to the question, though, more broadly it's important to note that certain provinces also have their own resources when it comes to oil and gas.

Natural Resources committee  I'm going to ask Jeff to jump in but certainly there are significant reserves sitting in Quebec and in New Brunswick. At the end of the day.... I wanted to come back to the final point which is this. I think folks are learning from the Newfoundland experience a little bit in this regard on the east coast and understanding that these can have significant, positive impacts on the economy.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. In the deck we talked about the IMF study, which is a pretty groundbreaking study. Essentially it showed that by diversifying our markets in the year 2020 we have the potential to grow 2% of our GDP, which is considerable as you know. I think the reverse is also true. I can't remember the exact figure in the study but it did indicate that were we not to, we would suffer some consequences.

Natural Resources committee  No, it was just handed to me so I can give you some examples. Provincial economic benefits of oil sands, is that the kind of stat you're looking for?