Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lemieux.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here.
We have a great committee here. We work very well together, and I don't want this to come across as the perception of the committee members, but I think all of us would accept that the perception of the oil and gas sector by many Canadians is that it's dirty, it's behind the times, and it's not innovating unless it's forced to.
Mr. Lemieux brought up the carbon tax, but, Mr. Thorsen and Ms. McQuade, that's what you've been talking about with HI-Q, and your GHG emissions are 30% lower than the industry average. You've been doing these things without a carbon tax in place. You've been innovating since day one without punitive taxes, when people say that without these taxes, you would not innovate. That's obviously not the case.
What has been driving your innovative decisions to invest in research and technology? You've been doing this until now without any influence or without government getting in the way, so what has been the driving force behind that within MEG up until now?
I want to pick up on some questions he was asking as well.