Good afternoon, everyone.
As the committee members and, I'm sure, the departmental officials know, we're starting a new study today. Before I turn to our first group of witnesses—the departmental officials—I just want to explain very briefly what our study is about.
We'll be dealing with market diversification in the energy sector. The committee, through discussions, decided to do that in three sections: export market diversification, product diversification, and diversification of energy supply sources. I'll give a brief explanation of what we're talking about.
Under the first section, we'll be looking at export market diversification: basically ensuring that Canadian energy products are exported to more than one country. We've seen the difficulties that have become apparent from depending on the United States, for example, as virtually the only export market for our oil. We've seen the depression in prices because of that, whereas if we had other markets, clearly we wouldn't be subject to the discount we're getting—certainly for Canadian bitumen and oil.
Product diversification refers to the promotion of a wide range of Canadian energy commodities. This used to be mostly commodities, but now of course this also includes expertise and energy technologies, both domestically and internationally. This may include diversifying Canada's oil portfolio by adding value to raw products by upgrading and refining, as well as other things that I'm sure will come out through the study.
It may also include enhancing export opportunities for Canada's renewable energy. We've had a lot of discussion at previous committee meetings on renewable energy, clean technology, and energy expertise. Again, we're not just looking at exporting commodities any more; it's the expertise and the innovation around that as well.
The third area we'll look at is diversification of energy supply sources. Diversification of energy supply sources refers to the extension of domestic markets, which can help lower energy costs to industry and consumers. In Canada, diversification of electricity markets and increased movement of crude oil from west to east can help expand domestic energy markets and strengthen overall interprovincial trade.
That's just a bit of background on the topic we're discussing. Now I want to get directly to the witnesses from the department....
Yes, Mr. Julian.