Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the presenters.
Concerning the accelerated capital cost allowance, the Department of Finance now is moving more to economic useful life, so this must have been brought in as a way to encourage the development of the oil sands, which was probably needed at some point in time if you wanted to support the oil sands, but in today's economy I'm not sure that is appropriate.
The other point I'd like to make is that with the capital cost allowance, while it is true that it's a deferral, if there is a lot of capital expenditure ongoing, that deferral becomes quite permanent. I'm a CA and I know about deferred taxes. It becomes a permanent deferral of taxes, so it's not just one time.
Mr. Stringham, I know you wanted to comment on that, but I'd like to ask a question with respect to the development of the oil sands to meet some domestic oil consumption requirements. There was some transaction completed recently, if I understood it correctly, where Conoco in the United States signed a strategic partnership with EnCana to take huge amounts of their production out of the oil sands and refine them in their refineries in the United States.
If we need the oil sands production for our domestic needs, why would a transaction like that be approved?