Thank you, Chair. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here this afternoon.
I want to begin my line of questioning with Mr. Clements.
I was in Fort McMurray last year, and one of my colleagues, the MP for Fort McMurray, Brian Jean, whom you probably know, gave us a comprehensive tour of the Fort McMurray oil sands.
What is striking about that part of the country is just how significant, when you see it first-hand, the amount of natural resources is that is being extracted from the ground and supplying the North American market, with a hope to supplying beyond it. I was really surprised to learn from Mr. Jean also that Fort McMurray is one of the most highly unionized cities in the country—I think the most highly unionized in the country. What would it do, if the Americans, as the NDP would want them to do, just stopped buying our natural resources?
As you know, they sent the delegation down to Washington about a year and a half ago, and their leader was just down there a few months ago talking down the Canadian oil sands. What would this do to the economy of Fort McMurray, the economy of the oil sands, the Canadian economy?