I'm going to focus my questions on two issues to start with, the first on energy, the second on the border.
First on energy, I'd like to hear from all members here. Slides 6, 7, 8, and 9 from the CFIB are rather interesting, because they talk about the issue of fuel prices and energy prices in particular. I'd like to know from your positions.... There are a couple of different things happening relating to energy prices. We've seen an incredible fluctuation, part of it due to the market right now having speculation in it. That has had a significant impact upon manufacturing. What would you advocate for? Should we allow continued speculation to dominate energy pricing as part of the current system, or should that be brought under control?
Further to that, as well, is whether any intervention strategy should be introduced into the Canadian economy or the North American economy. It's been done in provincial jurisdictions. As well, the Bush administration uses state intervention on numerous occasions to actually increase reserve capacity. There's debate about the effectiveness of that, but the reality is that he actually uses state intervention to affect a commodity price, or at least an attempt to affect it. That even has an effect on our exports as well.
So there are models out there to at least temper the price of fuel, and I'd like to hear from the panel how they would advocate for some type of change in the system. Or are you happy with the status quo, what we're living through right now?
It's interesting to note, through these panels, that energy and transportation issues are really the highest-end priorities.