I don't know if people in Ottawa have a real sense of the strength of feeling, both of the chiefs and, I think, of the people in the western provinces and the northern provinces. We're losing $100 million a day, by some estimates, in having no access to pipelines.
Just as a practical matter, where do people think our tax revenues come from? Just on that lower amount per year—they call it “air barrels”—the tax coffers of Canada and Alberta are losing about $20 billion a year. That includes the first nations groups in Alberta and Saskatchewan that have their own oil reserves. Instead of getting, at one time, $80 a barrel, they're getting $15 a barrel. It's absurd.
We deal with various national oil companies. They look at Canada and cannot believe we would be doing this, particularly when we've been able to develop.... Our mandate from our chiefs when we started this was to develop the greenest project on the face of the planet, and we've done that. We have technology that will, on shipping two million barrels a day, reduce over 100 megatonnes of CO2 out of the atmosphere. It will not create tailings ponds. Instead of using 45 million cubic metres of water per year, this technology recirculates the water. So you're not using the water.
We can produce Alberta oil on a greener basis than just about any other oil on the planet. We will utilize the Site C dam and renewable energy.
Most important, Maclean's magazine came out with an article a few months ago referring to first nations communities as having the same social statistics as Nigeria, Sudan and other countries like that. Most of these communities have 90% unemployment. We have a government that claims to be supporting UNDRIP, and it's pushing this down their throats, and there are no other alternatives for a lot of these communities.