Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be back here in front of the committee.
The oil sands is an area that has obviously attracted a huge amount of interest recently, and that's not surprising, given the scale of the investment that's being talked about there, given what's happened to crude oil prices, and given the political instability in some oil-producing parts of the world.
There are also some big and difficult issues connected with the oil sands, and my colleagues and I would be happy to shed as much light as we can on these issues. I don't want to disappoint you, and particularly not in advance, but there are a couple of areas where we won't be able to help you out.
As you noted, Mr. Chairman, we're here to provide information. Policy questions we'd have to refer to the relevant ministers. And questions about the Clean Air Act, which may well have important implications for the oil sands, I'd also have to pass on, simply because I'm not qualified to really answer those questions. With those constraints, we'd be happy to provide as much information as we can.
Mr. Chairman, we've circulated a deck. I think it's gone out to the committee in both official languages. I could take ten minutes or so to go through it quickly and provide background information, or we could just go directly to the questions, as you would prefer.