I want to tell you that we import energy today. We are a net exporter of energy, but as you can appreciate, we're a very large country and there are certain regions of the country where it makes more sense to import energy because it's a lot closer and a lot more efficient, and then we export more energy from other areas. That's just the way the market works. In some cases, it wouldn't make sense for the Atlantic provinces to get energy from Alberta when they have other sources that are a lot more affordable and a lot closer. Alberta is going to export its energy to other markets that are close.
That's the supply and demand of the market curve. But as I said in my opening comments about the amount of energy that we do export and what it provides to the economy.... You've heard me say publicly in the House that in the oil sands alone, the amount of money that's being invested there, and the returns, which allow us to deliver other areas in our social programs, provide a lot of revenue. There are other opportunities. We just want to make sure we do it well, which brings me back to your comment on the energy strategy.
Our energy strategy can never just be about one dimension of energy. We have to look at all the dimensions. We have to look at the social dimension. When the price of energy skyrockets, it hits the poorest of the poorest people in our nation the hardest. That's something we have to be very cognizant of. We have to remember that in our energy strategy.
There's the prosperity side, which is so important, but balanced with that is the environment. As I said in my opening remarks, we need a strong regulatory framework.