Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Des Rosiers, it's great to have you back and good to see you again. I appreciate your great presentation and the good information you've provided. There's one thing you said that I just have to point out. I was really happy to hear you say that sometimes we have to put our shoulder into it and defend our own country's accomplishments. That is great to hear. I think you even used the word “forcefully”. Maybe don't get the military out if there's a protest, but I hope that's something you can do moving forward.
This isn't necessarily a question, but I really appreciate that attitude and the fact that through this study, which I'm really excited about, we're going to hear about some of the incredible accomplishments and technological advancements that have happened here in Canada. Obviously, in my neck of the woods, in the oil and gas sector, and even in coal, for whatever reason and maybe globally, that message is clear. But it certainly doesn't seem to be the case in our own backyard where a great number of Canadians just don't see that, for whatever reason, and we still have that moniker, which is unfortunately put out there sometimes even by our own government, of Alberta's dirty oil. We have to do a much better job. For whatever reason, we don't talk about the successes we have had, about the things that we are the best in the world at, whether it's forestry, oil and gas, or nuclear. I hope that as a government department you will be able to champion that and bring that message forward.
Now to my question, I did see in your deck that in budget 2016 there was a billion dollars over four years to support clean technology. I remember looking through the budget, and I didn't see anything specifically about clean technology. Can you describe or does the department have a specific definition of clean technology, and how do you evaluate which tax dollars are being used to invest in clean technology? Do you understand what I'm saying? What sectors have you determined are clean technology and what would qualify for support in the clean technology sector?