I would like to welcome our witnesses today and thank them for their testimony. I have a number of questions for a number of witnesses. I hope I will be able to get through them all.
I want to start with you, Ms. Kennedy.
I want to thank you very much for your opening remarks, in which you speak about the fact that energy touches every aspect of our lives. Then you go on to speak about consumer goods and say it “supports health and education programs and systems, and creates the high standard of living that we in Canada are so fortunate to enjoy”.
This is one of the reasons we embarked on this study of the cross-Canada benefits of the energy sector, focusing on oil and gas. We had a sense there were benefits that we weren't actually putting our finger on or identifying but that are very real and that are experienced by not only communities but also individuals. I thank you for that.
I want to give you an opportunity to speak to Mr. Leach's comments concerning the inflated projected costs and the references he made to Suncor. I'm going to turn it over to you to speak to that issue.