Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of our witnesses.
One of the things we've been hearing lately from environmental activists and their commentary is so much an anti-oil rhetoric. We forget that our aboriginal voices are out there saying that they need oil and gas, natural resources and jobs, so they have been committed to that. We sometimes forget that this highly skilled workforce that we have has come about because of our commitment to our natural resources sector and the wealth that it has been able to attain for all Canadians.
Again, as we've heard from some of our other witnesses, we may want to talk about mining so that we can become leaders as far as the battery industry is concerned. However, what makes us think that this is going to be easily attained when we have Bill C-69, which is probably one of the biggest barriers for this? Over-regulation.... We heard how it takes months in some countries to get approval, and it drags on for years and years here in Canada.
Obviously, we have a lot that has to be done for us to deal with this. We talk about our ethically sourced coffee, but we don't talk about ethically sourced oil and gas. These are some of the concerns that I have.
Today Bloomberg has just indicated that China's emissions now exceed the emissions of all of the developed world combined, yet we keep talking about how great it will be that China will be on side and that all will be right with the world as far as the environment is concerned.
Mr. McTeague, I wonder if you could tell this committee what the impact of the Liberal government's decision to triple the carbon tax will be on the Canadian economy. Will it help to meet our emissions reduction targets, or will it simply cripple businesses, stifle innovation and make Canada even more uncompetitive on the international stage while doing very little to reduce emissions?