I'm sorry. I think we drifted a little.
I am agnostic on EVs. I think they're a wonderful drive. It's an interesting form of technology, but perhaps my bias is in having worked, Mr. Dreeshen, for Toyota Canada and Lexus prior to being a member of Parliament.
There's a company that's saying EVs are not the way they're going to go. Yes, they're going to qualify and they're going to put out certain models, but they're going to hydrogen. They see the future. They're not prepared to invest it in something as unreliable as an EV, which of course cannot exist without hydrocarbons. Neither the polymers, the resins, the asphalt nor the tires can be built.
Of course, we have to look at the amount of environmental damage that is caused. Five hundred thousand pounds of earth has to be removed in order to make your 1,000-pound battery. We know, of course, that there have been attempts to try to do this, but those batteries, at the end of cycle, cannot be replaced.
Rather than making it an ICE versus EV comparison, I think the idea behind all of this is no matter how we look at it, the idea of oil and gas simply disappearing because we wish it or because we set arbitrary dates for net zero won't make it any different. The reality.... I'm not sure when the committee decided to embark on this one specific aspect of the oil and gas sector, but I suspect it may have predated the war in eastern Europe. I think it's brought to light not so much the idea that we can double down on green renewables as a means of getting to where we want to be, but rather to recognize that oil and gas is a bit like Rodney Dangerfield's “I don't get no respect”.
The reality for most is that this is starting to become a growing concern globally, as countries—whether it's the United States, Europe or Asia—recognize that we have to look at the potential for greater growth in fossil fuels. For how we manage them and the best practices, I would stack up Canada's environmental record on its oil and gas sector against any other country in the world.
By the way, you mentioned my days as an industry critic, sitting on the industry committee itself. Your chair, Mr. Scarpaleggia, knows my work on the energy industry. There were very few members of Parliament who took on the oil and gas sector like I did. I can tell you, they don't like the fact that I predict gas prices a few days before. It robs them of tens of millions of dollars a year, which I help consumers with.
Having said that, on the issue of EVs, how much are we paying in subsidies? If we really want to look at major subsidies, I think we ought to look at what we're giving to the major auto manufacturers, which might be in and of itself a long-term goal. When we start going down that hole of subsidies, let's not only make sure we have a proper definition, but also say where our priorities lie.
Those subsidies would not be possible without the $20 billion to $30 billion you receive every year from the oil and gas sector.