Well, Mr. Godfrey, we can always use more historians, and in this sense I prefer to quote Mark Twain, who was very fond of saying that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
You're quite right to point out that when oil sands development began, how much of a concern was the environment? The sad answer is, not very much. The very first oil sands companies that came into existence.... For example, when we look at Great Canadian Oil Sands, when they began production, there was no environmental impact statement done. In fact, if we take a look at when the first assessments were done on the environmental impacts of the oil sands or on oil sands development in the Fort McMurray region, they weren't completed until after there had been two oil spills in the region. So it wasn't until the 1970s that we began to see environmental protection legislation really beginning to influence the development of the oil sands.
You ask a very important question: what will the judgment of history be on the way in which we proceed today? I think part of my answer is more philosophical. In my presentation, I indicated to you that, quite literally, when oil sands development began, if we were to go back to 1950, with the provincial administration of Ernest Manning, when he began going forward with oil sands development, there was no market for Alberta's oil sands. Quite literally, you could not sell a barrel of oil sands oil to anyone in the world. It was a fringe resource existing on the margins. Then, when we take a look at when the province began the process of putting together the first proposals, two-thirds of every barrel of oil drilled in Alberta was kept in the ground. There was no market. In short, it was a leap of faith by Premier Manning and J. Howard Pew of Sun Oil.
I guess what I'm trying to drive at, Mr. Godfrey, is that we talk about leadership, and I would suggest to you that this is a tremendous opportunity, as well, for us to take a look at the environmental concerns we have today and to see—