Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you as well to the minister and to the officials for appearing.
Coming as I do from the auto industry, it's no surprise that my interest lies in how the auto industry and greenhouse gas emissions reduction come together.
Of course, Minister, as we all know, in your previous portfolio we did some work together with respect to Canada's auto action plan, which was announced in February 2008.
One of the pillars of that plan, of course, was the focus on automotive research and development, particularly green R and D, and the auto innovation fund, which is to help automakers retool their Canadian operations to produce fuel-efficient vehicles and fuel-efficient vehicle components. From that came the Essex engine announcement, back home in the neighbouring riding of Windsor, both to produce fuel-efficient engines and to have a green research and development centre as part of that investment.
Yesterday, though, you made some additional announcements in terms of moving the auto industry forward in the efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. I wonder if you can take us through that in a bit more detail. You gave us a glimpse of that earlier today. Obviously, there are Canadians who will be watching this as well and who may not have heard your announcement yesterday.
Of course, as you're going through your answer, it's with the knowledge in mind that President Obama has announced his intention to implement the U.S. reform to CAFE standard, which must be achieved in two product cycles for the auto industry and is actually a fairly aggressive target.
Can you can outline for us what we mean by a stringent, dominant North American standard; what that will be under the U.S. reformed CAFE; and the importance, in terms of the continental approach to harmonization, of improving our vehicle fuel-efficiency performance and what that means to greenhouse gas reductions? If you can walk us through that a bit, I'd love to hear details about how we intend to regulate through CEPA as well.