Clean technology and innovation are really central to the government's program. There will be significant investments across a number of different government departments to make that happen. As a part of our mission to China in early to mid-June, we will be having serious conversations about this with the Chinese and others internationally.
Innovation is an extremely important element of how we will manage the transition from today's energy economy to tomorrow's. There would be agreement internationally that there is a trend away from fossil fuels. There will be a disagreement among the analysts about how long that's going to take, but I don't think there's much disagreement that this is the trajectory that can't be denied.
If you look at the oil sands themselves, we were in a position to develop them because of innovation. That resource sat in the ground a long time, until innovators figured out a way to get it out. Now we're seeing already that innovation is finding ways to take the resource out of the ground more sustainably, as judged by the carbon footprint it leaves behind.
In my conversations with other ministers from around the world, most recently at the G-7 in Rome, we are in an international marketplace and an international competition for innovation in clean technology. We should see this as an opportunity for Canada. We often talk about and should have in mind the competitive pressures from the United States but also that we are in a unique position to take advantage of our innovators, our entrepreneurs, and our riches within the energy sector, both traditional and renewable, to place Canada at the forefront.
People will know around the table of the great work of COSIA, the Canadian Oil Sands Alliance, which puts their own intellectual property aside and work together as an industry to share technologies and best practices for the benefit of all.
I appreciate that you isolated that as a very important part of the move towards the low-carbon energy future. Be assured that the Government of Canada understands the opportunities and is moving aggressively, in concert and cooperation with the private sector, to position Canada well, not only to look after our domestic situation but also to become an international leader.