Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the witnesses, and thank you very much. It's been very illuminating testimony over the last two sessions, and I look forward to the next two.
The NDP introduced the motion to study refineries and pipelines for three reasons. First, we're really concerned about the decline of Canadian-based refining. Second, there is much talk about pipelines, and we're interested in getting to the bottom of the benefits and risks associated with pipelines, especially new pipelines. And probably most important, the Minister of Natural Resources promised that he would produce an energy strategy for Canada. He talked about this last June, but it hasn't yet materialized.
The NDP is using the information you're providing to us over these days in our own research. We have a large team working on our own energy strategy, which we'll be presenting later this year. We'll be focusing on domestic oil security, export markets, our climate change response, and, perhaps most important, how to move to greener energy sources.
I will just move to a first question about refining. Statistics presented at our last session show that since 1980, the number of refineries operating in Canada has dropped from 39 to 15. That's about a 60% decrease. At the same time, our refining capacity over the same period has declined from about 2.2 million barrels a day to about 1.9 million barrels a day. That's a decline of about 15% over that period. To us the outlook for domestic refining capacity seems pretty bleak.
To all three of our guests today, what would be your outlook for the oil refining industry in Canada over the long term?