Thank you.
I appreciate the challenge that you face as government for a nation.
Everybody has similar requests. We see ours as a special case, and what we need to do is find a way so that Canada can also embrace it as a special case.
If you're looking at the opportunities the oil sands represent as far as continental energy supply, maybe there is a strategic priority that results from that. Then when you look at the kind of investment it takes to facilitate the outflow of that product, which again brings significant revenues at the federal level, it employs Canadians across the nation. When we look at our commuters, they're coming from across Canada to participate in the oil sands development opportunities here. If you look at it from more of a strategic level, in any of your thinking, when we put forward our request about having a tripartite-type agreement, where we embrace three levels of government that are working to solve the challenges of a municipality, it doesn't put the onus on any single particular area. We've done a significant amount of work as to what a memorandum might look like in that regard, and we're happy to share that. Again, it comes down to setting your national priority-type agenda and then working this into the picture.
I very much appreciate the efforts that have been undertaken up to this point. The federal gas tax is something that municipalities are very gratefully receiving. But if I can give you perspective, what that amounts to over a five-year period for Wood Buffalo is $12 million. A single project I have will wipe that out, and I have $814 million worth of those projects over the next five years. So for perspective, it is wonderful in stable situations, without growth, but it just doesn't work for the growth scenario we're facing.