Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Minister and Ms. Doyle and Mr. Tobin.
Normally, Minister, I'd find your comments sort of infectiously enthusiastic, but I must say, when I go through your estimates, my enthusiasm is dampened somewhat. I want to come back to that in a moment.
If you measure success as allowing the oil sands to grow the way they would like to without any constraints because the CO2 emissions are going to be controlled on an intensity basis, then I suppose if that's your measure of success, the Clean Air Act does that. But I'm not sure that would be my measure of success.
Just to touch on the income trusts briefly, it's been reported that this is going to cause some consolidation in the industry, and then some Canadian companies could be the targets of takeovers. I don't know if you're going to stand by while the oil sands and the oil and gas companies are gobbled up like Inco and Falconbridge, but I hope you don't. I hope you stand up to the industry minister and say that our natural resource companies deserve some protection, or at least some public debate.
But I'd like to get into your estimates, Minister, because if you look at them, for a department that you would argue, I suppose, has some priority, the estimates to 2008-09 are reduced by some $400 million, or by close to 30%. I'm wondering if you think that's the way the government sets its priorities.
Second, you talked about, and you have talked before about, energy efficiency and conservation and the importance of that. Of course, we know that the EnerGuide program has been scrubbed. We know that the wind power production incentive has been put on ice, or however you want to refer to it. In fact, in your own words, you talked about the industrial energy efficiency initiatives. I looked at your estimates, and those numbers have gone down from $7.2 million to $4.5 million in 2008-09. So I don't know if that's attaching a lot of priority to industry energy efficiency.
On CO2 capture and storage, which you talk about often, Minister, I looked at your estimates, and there's a paltry amount of $400,000 in 2006-07, which goes down to zero in 2008-09. I'm not sure that is reflecting that sort of priority.
You probably know, also, Minister, that in this committee we adopted a motion for the government to reinstate immediately the EnerGuide program and the WPPI program. I'm wondering if you're going to do that.
I wonder if you'd comment on what I've just said. But also, when you came here last time, you said that the government would have an energy strategy or framework, or however you want to refer to it. We're still waiting, Minister, and the fall is just about over. I know you try to do things very comprehensively, very completely, but we're still waiting for the son or daughter of EnerGuide. We're still waiting for the son or daughter of WPPI. We're still waiting for the energy strategy. When are we going to see these things, sir?