Thank you. I appreciate the question.
When we refer to regulatory capture, we're talking about a situation where the public interest in laws and regulations has been shifted to serving the interest of special, vested interests. This has long been the case with respect to environment, energy and climate policy in Canada, and it unfortunately remains the case. The investment tax credit is a perfect example. It's pouring billions of dollars into an unproven technology that's been researched and publicly financed for decades and remains utterly ineffective.
This will help prop up an industry that otherwise has to be phased out, and there can be no debate about the fact that it has to be phased out. That's an unequivocal finding of climate science, but instead the government....
I would note about the letter that we, the signatories, requested a meeting with the government to air our concerns, and the government didn't even meet with us to hear them. That's exhibit A of regulatory capture, when you have over 400 interdisciplinary experts on the most pressing policy problem facing the country and you decide not to even meet. It's because your mind is already made up, and your mind has been made up by the oil and gas industry. That's what regulatory capture is.