Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Gentlemen, I want to go to something that Premier Redford in Alberta has been calling for, for about 90 days or slightly longer now. That is her call for a national energy strategy in this country. I think she has been raising some really important questions around where we're going as a nation with respect to energy.
I'd like to get your responses to that, because this study is all about the current and future state of oil and gas pipelines and refining capacity in Canada. I don't know how you cannot address the question of a more coherent national approach to energy.
I'm not going to get into questions like nuclear or questions like renewables. The government is making choices all the time.
Mr. Corey, you fall back repeatedly on the notion of “free market”, as if the free market for energy in Canada were not fettered. All you have to do is read the Income Tax Act to know that the free market for energy is fettered like every other free market activity in the country.
Governments make choices. For example, the national government is promising loan guarantees for the exploitation of hydro power in eastern Canada. The federal government has declined to meet Ontario halfway with respect to renewables. Those are choices a government makes. That fetters a market.
Can I get your first high-level responses, Mr. Corey and Mr. Boag? Do we need to work coherently, as one country, to look at where we are with energy and where we're going with energy, working with the provinces? Because it's not just Premier Redford who is calling for this. We now have quite a large number of CEOs of fossil fuel companies who are saying, “We just need more certainty and clarity.”
Mr. Boag, perhaps we can start with you.