Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I didn't catch the whole story here. Also, I've been involved with the natural resources committee for about three months.
I think, clearly, what you're saying is that you need this tax break to encourage the companies to invest, but when we are looking at the industry, we are looking at projections of an expansion to three and a half million barrels a day by 2015. We are at a million barrels right now.
Within the projects that are going ahead right now, we are experiencing labour shortages throughout western Canada. We have overheated the economy. The goods and services that are being used in the tar sands are taking away from the profit in the projects that are going ahead. So there is a bit of a relationship. As this thing heats up, then, you're making the argument that we can't afford to give back the tax break that was put in in 1995.
At the same time, we are also looking, in the industry, at starting to outsource from offshore some of the major pieces of equipment that are going into the tar sands. From my understanding, we are looking at bringing them down the Mackenzie River and then through the waterway system to Fort McMurray, in 2,000 tonne groups, from offshore, from other countries.
So we may be losing employment and economics as well, if we continue to expand at the same rate and see this sort of buildup of activity in the area.
Is there a reasonable limit in the Canadian economy to what we're doing in the tar sands? That would be my question to all of you. Should we have an industrial strategy, which sets some kind of parameters for the expansion of this area in a logical fashion, that will deliver resource revenue and taxation to government, ensure that costs remain reasonable, and ensure that the rest of the economy is not altered in a negative fashion through this rapid expansion?