Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
In my earlier round of questioning, I was talking about the difference between an expansionary approach in terms of more extraction per day in the oil and gas sector.
I want to talk a bit about the value-added component, because we've seen the federal government, for instance, commit to a project that is likely to cost over $15 billion. That's the TMX pipeline. We saw the Alberta government invest considerably—billions of dollars—in Keystone XL. When we talk about trying to get more value out of the oil and gas that we extract—not in terms of price on the international market but in terms of jobs for Canadians—the obvious gap there is doing more refining and upgrading work in Canada. When we talk about that, what we hear is “oh well, that's a market decision” and that obviously there isn't a business case or companies would already be doing it, but when it comes to a pipeline, governments seem quite prepared to invest taxpayers' dollars in those kinds of projects.
I want to ask Ms. Savage what she sees. We're not just hearing this from environmentalists. We're hearing this from very serious international investors who are talking about the reality of climate change and the importance of addressing climate change. It seems to me that in that context there is a transition away from oil and gas happening within the market itself, not just driven by governments. It's going to be important to get more value and do more value-added work in the sector for the extraction that Canada continues to do, but we don't see investment in that value-added piece.
I want to know why that is. Why is it that the Government of Alberta, for instance, is willing to support a pipeline, but we don't see an equal emphasis put—and it's the same for the federal government—on the need to do this? We've actually lost refining and upgrading capacity in Canada over the last 20 or 30 years or so, as the oil and gas industry was booming. Where is the plan to get Canadians doing more of the value-added work in the oil and gas industry?