Thanks, Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses here today.
You talked about the long-known and proven importance of oil and gas to the entire Canadian economy and to indigenous communities for opportunities that are otherwise lacking in many of the regions and remote areas where they live. You talked, of course, about the fact that the oil and gas sector has, for decades, employed indigenous Canadians to a much higher degree than other sectors. Thank you also for articulating the importance of LNG and energy transportation infrastructure for the entire country.
Of course, the fact about TMX is that the federal government naturally failed, even after federal approval, to enforce the rule of law that would have given political and legal certainty to private sector proponents, so they could go ahead and build the big project in the national interest of Canada. In the case of LNG, we all know the only shovels in the ground on an LNG export terminal in Canada are the ones originally approved by the former Conservative government for LNG Canada. Zero LNG export terminals have been constructed in Canada since, even though there have been 18 proposals from private sector proponents since this government took office in 2015. The United States, of course, has rapidly constructed 22 export terminals in the exact same time frame.
This goes to the point that each and every one of you made about regulatory uncertainty, inefficiency and permitting. Those are exactly the issues that common-sense Conservatives seek to fix for all Canadians, to the benefit of every single community across this country.
All of that being said, there's still the fact that it's not quite true the TMX pipeline is the only export pipeline available. The vast majority of that product still goes out from the Gulf Coast of the U.S. In fact, a staggering, stunning decision was this Prime Minister's unilateral decision to veto and overrule the northern gateway pipeline, which was the stand-alone export pipeline that was previously approved. The court said the Prime Minister could go back and get indigenous consultation right. Of course, he surprised all of the indigenous communities that supported northern gateway by not consulting them on that and vetoing the pipeline. That's what killed stand-alone export infrastructure for Canada.
Here we are with TMX now well behind schedule and well over-budget, and we all know darn well that Canada is already running out of pipeline export capacity.
Thank you, Ms. Yedlin, for your point that is so true: The emissions cap is a production cap. Could you explain the impact of Canada's production cap on the royalties and taxes that get paid, providing services all Canadians care about, and the impact on TMX?
Adam, you may want to comment on that as well.
Thank you to the representatives of the workers who do all the work here.