Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our guests today and to those who are joining us via Zoom.
I want to begin with a couple of observations I've made. I know this is a topic that has obviously engulfed this committee right now and that will for some time into the future. It's a very important discussion that needs to happen.
I'm glad to have heard some of the witnesses today speak very clearly about the importance of making sure that the workers' voices are being heard. So much time is spent in this conversation talking about ideals, concepts, hopes, aspirations, new accords and further things being signed, but Canadians and working families live in realities. This is paycheques. This is groceries on tables. This is school supplies for their children. This is the ability to provide homes and vehicles and transportation for their families.
It's personal for me, in the sense that I grew up in a mill worker's home. My dad worked in a mill and belonged to a union for his entire life. He retired after carrying a bucket like this one—it's his bucket, actually—to a mill for 51 years. He worked in a resource-based industry.
In a lot of discussions that are held today, many of the workers across this country, who helped build this country and make this country what it is, feel as though they're being marginalized, talked down to and taken for granted. All of these workers—my dad included, as well as, I know, people from my area—respect the environment and want to be good stewards of the environment. We want to hand off to future generations a Canada that, yes, is cleaner and greener, but we also recognize the reality that our world is still largely dependent on fossil fuels and a continuous stable supply of energy. What we're seeing happening geopolitically around the world right now is putting an exclamation mark on the need to maintain safe and reliable sources of energy supply while we transition.
Canada has some of the best environmental regulations that there are in the entire world for energy extraction and use. We have a tremendous energy story to tell. We can help other economies transition to even cleaner natural fuels and fossil fuels, yet it seems as though all the emphasis is on how quickly we can get away from Canadian energy. I think the discussion needs to be that as long as the world is still largely dependent upon fossil fuels and energy, we need to make sure that it has a safe and stable supply of good, clean Canadian energy that is developed in fair and ethical ways.
I think of my dad today. I think of workers across the Prairies, across northern Ontario and all over our great country. They want to know that this committee and those who are helping to form the policies that are going to shape the next few years are hearing their voices.
Can those of us here in this committee assure that in all the consultations we do, we're hearing from those average everyday blue-collar workers who carry the buckets and still work in the factories and are still in our energy sector? I think they really want to know if this committee is hearing their voices and concerns as well.
Can any of the witnesses speak to that? I know it was a bit of a long introduction, but I really feel I want to put that on the table, because I think so many people who are listening in today are concerned about their jobs and livelihoods and want to know that this committee is hearing their voices.
I'll start with you, Mr. Railton.