I appreciate that. You know the direction in which we have been going, which is to phase out any special benefits for oil and gas in Canada.
The oil and gas sector pays billions of dollars a year in taxes, and that tax revenue is used to pay for health care and other social programs by governments across Canada. In the 2007 budget and again in 2011, we took out some of the preference specific to oil sands producers, so they're gone and have been gone completely since 2011.
This year we're phasing out the Atlantic investment tax credit for oil and gas and mining sectors, a move which has met with some resistance. Quite frankly, these are good investments in Atlantic Canada, and they don't need a tax preference. They can make money and they do make money.
This is part of our commitment to the G-20 as well. We just talked about it again this weekend in Mexico City. A lot of the other countries in the G-20 are concerned that large gas and oil producers like Canada do not subsidize oil and gas production through taxation, through the tax system, and we do not. We've moved quite dramatically away from that during the course of this government.