Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your Parliament of Canada.
We all agree that climate change is real and that we need to adapt to it. Consequently, we have to reduce pollution and emissions.
As we obviously know, the oil industry plays a major role in Canada in both our economic and energy-related lives and that it has considerable impacts on the environment.
We use oil at home in Quebec. According to recent studies published by HEC Montréal, 18 billion litres of oil are used every year, which represents an 87% increase.
We will fight for Canadian oil for as long as we need it. Why is that important? Because, in Canada, we have very high human rights and environmental standards.
Remember that Canada makes equalization payments to many provinces. Quebec receives $13 billion in equalization.
Now I'm going to ask some questions, and I'd like all the witnesses to answer each of them.
First, by how many percentage points have you managed to reduce the industry's environmental footprint or the amount of pollution generated by producing a barrel of oil?
Let's begin with you, Mr. Kruger.