Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our guests for being here today. I'm pleased to have representatives from Enbridge here.
One of the things we have to remember when talking about energy innovation is that all of this comes back to our quality of life in the western world, particularly places that have cheap, reliable energy. I know that our infant mortality rates are some of the lowest in the world and our life expectancy is among the highest in the world, and that comes from the fact that we have clean water, warm houses to live in, and the most amazing health care, which is all predicated on the cheap energy we have. The conversation we are having today is driving the quality of life that we have in Canada. I just wanted to make that point.
My first question is for Alex.
Budget 2017 proposes that expenditures relating to drilling or completing a discovery well, the key words being “discovery well”, are going to be classified as a development expense instead of an exploration expense. Can you explain to us what that means and how it is going to impact oil and gas exploration in Canada?