Thank you so much for presenting today. It's great to have you all on the panel.
I'm glad that Dr. Pineau mentioned the three-dollar-per-barrel oil price. Actually, western Canadian select was negative, I believe. That's important to know. We had a significant energy crisis that impacted western Canada. I'm from Calgary. I'll give you some numbers. There's a 30% vacancy rate in our downtown core, with significant challenges to provincial and municipal budgets. Most importantly, there's the loss of thousands of jobs and the drastic impact on working Albertans and Calgarians.
As I see it, the purpose of the program is quite clearly outlined. The $750 million brought forward was part of Canada's COVID-19 economic response plan to help oil and gas companies maintain jobs. We were in crisis, and it was critical to maintain jobs while reducing methane emissions. I think that's the critical thing when we look at the first part of the intake program. Did we meet those objectives? That's critical to look at.
Mr. Lakeman, you talked about hydrogen and Edmonton Global and the great initiatives you're working on. Are there other ways that the Government of Canada could be supporting oil and gas companies in reducing their emissions while retaining jobs?
As a second part to that question, do you believe this program has shown new, promising research and development opportunities that have come out of the first intake part of the program and will help spur further reductions in methane gases?