First of all, I want to thank you all for being here. I know you all have busy work schedules. It means a lot to the committee to have amazing resources such as you that we can draw on to come and testify before us to help shed some light on these issues. I really appreciate that.
I'm going to focus my time on you, Ms. Flood. I want to take the opportunity to thank you for the written submission that you gave us, and that you spoke from, of course. It really does highlight what I believe, which is that the Canadian oil sands is a sector of the Canadian economy that's vital and integral, not just to Canadians in western Alberta but also to Canadians across the country. I've always been amazed by the innovation that has occurred in the in situ oil sands and continues to occur as we speak, and hopefully will continue for years ahead.
I want to highlight a couple of things you said in your notes that really appealed to me. The first was, “Our vision is to be trusted stewards of natural resources. And, we believe that through sustainable development—focusing on economic prosperity, a healthy environment, and social well-being, we’ll be able to help Canada meet its energy needs using oil derived with the lowest carbon intensity in the world.” I think that's very important.
I also want to highlight where you said that the energy sector will need to transform itself in order to succeed in an increasingly carbon-constrained and cost-competitive world. You also wrote that the goal of the energy system, in this context, is to deliver to nine billion people safe, affordable energy that minimizes carbon emissions. I wanted to highlight those because they really do speak to the innovation that has occurred. I praise you for those comments.
I'm from a very rural riding that is much like Mr. Barlow's riding, but on the east coast of Canada. A lot of my friends work in the oil sands. They work in the oil and gas industry, and they work in the northern mining projects, because we are a rural economy that has faced significant challenges as well in the past 25 or 30 years. I think that speaks to the importance of these projects.
I wanted to know if you could elaborate a bit on the importance of the innovation, the $200 million that you have been investing in innovation and technology. How do you feel the government can best contribute to that in order to see the industry move forward and continue to grow upon the successes that you've already had?