Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Canadians elected a serious, pragmatic government, and I'm hearing lots of positive momentum this morning in the oil and gas industry, in particular focusing on Alberta production, as my colleague mentioned, being at record highs. I'll also note the record highs of foreign direct investment in the Canadian energy industry. That's lots of good news for Canadian workers and for Canadian industry. You've heard the Prime Minister say many times, “Canada has what the world wants.”
Ms. Lail, you mentioned some of the current geopolitical challenges, highlighting the need for energy security in Canada when you have an administration, the Trump administration in the United States, that starts a foreign war and drives up the cost of oil exponentially. I think it's the single highest increase in the price of oil and gas in history. There's no exit plan and no idea of how to extract themselves from that.
It just drives home the point that Canada does, indeed, have what the world needs, and we need to find ways to get that to market. I'm in total agreement there.
You made a really interesting point early on about the labour market in the Alberta oil and gas industry and the fact that, with the increase in production and the momentum we're seeing in the industry, it's difficult to fill those positions. I'd like to give you the opportunity to expand on that. What can we do as a federal government and as a country to make sure we are attracting the best and brightest to Canada and have the labour available to fill the jobs that are available in the energy industry?