Yes, of course. I know.
Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the witnesses for coming today.
I will ask my questions in French, and they are addressed to the Pembina Institute representatives. I will be sharing my time with my colleague Dennis Bevington.
My first question has to do with the famous $1.3 billion in subsidies and the ecoENERGY program, which subsidizes research on tar sands and gas.
Would it be a good choice to withdraw theses subsidies and use them for research in diversification, in such areas as hydroelectricity, wind power and wave power, which we are beginning to hear about and which could be increasingly appealing in Canada?
Furthermore, not much can be done with tar sands, since we are being told we have to leave two-thirds in the ground to meet our objectives or our targets, which are quite weak in any case. Indeed, Conservative targets with respect to climate change are very weak. If we put a price on carbon, would we be able to do so at the federal level? For our part, we are proposing the creation of a carbon exchange, similar to what Quebec and California have just signed.
Could you please quickly answer those two questions? Unfortunately, my time is limited since we were unable to obtain the committee's consent to prolong the session and discuss this issue a little longer.