Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all our witnesses for being here today. I am going start with Mr. Dunn.
You talked about shale gas companies, among others. I had the privilege of meeting with a representative from British Columbia. He was somewhat concerned about a coal bed methane project under way in the northern part of the province.
I am pretty familiar with shale gas, given the big dilemma it presents. My riding of Drummond is home to a lot of shale gas; it's incredibly plentiful. But the residents are very concerned. There are 16 shale gas watch committees made up of citizens. Several hundred people are joining forces to find out what is going on. They are extremely worried because the water being used for the project is well water, groundwater.
There are two systems: the shale gas, which is roughly one, two or sometimes three kilometres deep; and the coal bed methane, which is less than a kilometre deep. Is there any scientific research to confirm that, under a national conservation plan, both of these systems are safe, or should we avoid one of the two?