Natural Resources Canada regularly monitors energy markets: oil, gas, and other commodities. We track market developments, and we're in regular contact with our provincial counterparts, as well as with our industry colleagues, in terms of identifying potential market issues going forward.
I think everybody was caught a little off guard last winter, in terms of low inventories heading into the winter as a result of the huge crop demand in the U.S. Then we were caught again by unexpected big demand for propane for home heating purposes, given the abnormally cold temperatures.
In terms of federal responsibilities and the marketplace, the price increases essentially provided the signals that the market required that the commodity be moved around to where it was most needed. We saw last winter that those market forces worked, in terms of moving supplies away from export markets in the U.S. gulf coast back into the northeast and Canadian markets to ensure that adequate supply was available.
Moving forward into this winter season, we see that industry has taken a number of steps in response to last year's developments to ensure that we're better positioned in terms of meeting their market demands going forward. In terms of the—