I would say firstly on the costing of this particular initiative, there are two components. One is an investment tax credit, and a production tax credit would have to be tailored to the Canadian context. It would be done differently than the U.S., although there would be similarities, so that will drive part of the costing issue.
Secondly, we have started that work. The wind and solar industries have now commissioned work to get a detailed costing to this committee and to the federal government over the coming weeks, so that you'll have that information.
As a committee, you have a very difficult task here, particularly when it comes to the electricity sector, to come up with measures that are actually going to incent activity in the various jurisdictions across Canada. Electricity is provincially driven. Every system is very different. The Alberta system is completely different from the way that the Ontario system operates and procures electricity, etc., similarly to B.C.
The objective here, and the beauty about the tax credits, is that it applies equally to businesses and people across the country and allows them to make the investments and take action. Then the provincial systems, each of them being unique, will try to complement what has been provided to the individual, and business, and commercial investors.
As has been proven in the United States, this has been a very effective way of allowing the States to complement what the federal government has done. We have not considered whether or not the provinces themselves would contribute to a federal tax credit like this. I leave that to people like yourselves and others who understand those dynamics to know if that would be practical.