Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I find it interesting how over the years the oil and gas industry has evolved. Just a few years ago we were talking about importing LNG into North America, and now an article I have pulled up on my BlackBerry talks about a price, and this was a little bit back, of $2 per million BTUs. Things have changed.
With that in mind, I was interested that in your notes you indicate that in June of last year, 11 new licences were awarded based on bids of work expenditure commitments totalling $534 million over the next five years. That represents $100 million a year, not a big amount of money in some respects.
It got me to thinking. What are our strengths and weaknesses up north as far as drawing industry there, with the price now? If I'm Encana or somebody, I'd look at the shale play in Pennsylvania, Texas, or Arkansas, or something of that nature. I can think of some of the weaknesses up there. Weather is a little difficult. It's a bit of a distance to markets. What are our comparative strengths and weaknesses in Canada's north? From there, I'll follow up with the question as to what we can do to enhance our comparative strengths.
Lay out for me what our strengths are, because I have seen some of the weaknesses, and if I haven't seen some of the weaknesses feel free to throw them in, all in 60 seconds or more.