Natural Resources committee  The energy framework initiative was an initiative of four associations, including the CGA, that launched a series of discussion papers around energy. What I'm saying is that at this point we don't take a particular position on a carbon tax or on carbon pricing. We acknowledge that carbon is part of the discourse.

Natural Resources committee  That is financing that has been raised in this roughly first year of operation. It's not an annual contribution; these projects are being funded, and then as they wind down, new projects will come forward that will receive funding. As to the ratio of dollars, I don't have the precise number, but it's leveraged roughly one to five on utility dollars to non-utility dollars, I believe.

Natural Resources committee  The first one is on the kinds of projects. If there were a public partner, what kinds of projects could we move forward? In a sense, it all depends on the amount of capital that can come to the table and who the partners are. I noted that we're in conversation with SDTC—early stages—about a possible cooperative relationship to leverage public money.

Natural Resources committee  Again, I'm here on behalf of the gas distribution industry, not the gas pipeline industry. That said, we work very closely with our pipeline colleagues, and I think the safety record is an extraordinary one. In response to an earlier question, I noted that it's tough to compare the safety records when delivering gas to different projects in the north.

Natural Resources committee  No, I'd call them all small. This is a relatively new initiative. These are all very small projects. We'd like to build much bigger ones. We just started this initiative roughly a year ago. The opportunity is to hopefully access more capital as it continues to get off the ground with more and more projects.

Natural Resources committee  Again, it is early days. Initial reception has been very positive through our partners. I referenced briefly a water heater technology project we have with NRCan, where we have about 90 new technology water heaters in homes across the country. It's a partnership with utilities and service providers and home owners, and NRCan came into the initiative.

Natural Resources committee  As you know well, there are actually significant natural gas resources in the Canadian north. The Mackenzie Delta is a rich natural gas basin. The economics of developing those areas depends on market prices, and right now it looks like it will be a while off before we see significant new development of those resources.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that is a common criticism of the industry, because there is the assumption, as you noted, that a commodity is just being run through a pipe and that's all there is to it. There is significant technology involved at all stages of the value chain for natural gas. The most recent technological innovation that most people know about is through recovery of shale gas from reserves, which has made economical the recovery of vast supplies of gas that were previously assumed to be unrecoverable.

Natural Resources committee  I can't comment on the upstream. We're in the downstream side. I was going to take you right down the value chain.

Natural Resources committee  I would say that in terms of major transmission lines we are world leaders in technology. We are some of the most significant innovators in large transmission technology, which is not surprising given the distances that we have to move commodities like natural gas across the country.

Natural Resources committee  From coast to coast to coast. We have a utility in Inuvik. These are technicians, these are engineers—these are highly skilled professionals in a host of different areas. The opportunity to expand on that is really significant as the industry continues to grow, and the affordability of the product is allowing us to consider that.

Natural Resources committee  I won't comment on oil because we're a natural gas industry. Pipelines are an incredibly safe way to transport natural gas, and they've been relied upon for decades and decades to do that. The safety measures that are in place are.... First of all, it's a highly regulated industry at the national level.

Natural Resources committee  I talked about natural gas opportunities in the north. The reality is that we're not going to put pipelines in place to get natural gas to many of those remote project opportunities; we're going to move it in two other ways: either as liquid natural gas or as compressed natural gas.

Natural Resources committee  That's correct.

Natural Resources committee  I couldn't comment on the relative safety because the standards are extraordinary on both, and as I mentioned, the situation is highly regulated in both instances. I really couldn't comment on which is safer.