Finally, then, Mr. Fadden, with respect to the needs you identified.... You talked about water, and you particularly mentioned aquifer mapping. The hydro-geology behind water is something we're not really good at yet in this country; we haven't done a lot of it. Then you mentioned regulatory reform. We did have a two-year panel on smart regulation, with a series of very profound recommendations for change, including some in the area of sustainable development. You mentioned becoming an energy superpower.
But I want to focus on something else that I call ecological fiscal reform. Would it be useful for this committee to examine the tax treatment and the spending priorities of the government with respect to energy projects? For example, the NDP regularly raise the notion that there's a $1.2 billion subsidy. I'm not sure exactly what they're talking about. I think they're referring to the investment tax credit for fossil fuel investment, in the oil sands particularly—an ITC that is not, for example, offered in the north but is offered in the oil sands specifically, in a hundred-billion-dollar project.
Is this ecological fiscal reform concept something the committee ought to be looking at? Does it have legs? Is it going to be important to help us shift to reduce greenhouse gases?