Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the remarks of my friend and former teacher. I want to bring out a bit of education for my hon. friend and perhaps the House on one of the areas she slagged, and that is the oil industry.
With the support of this government and, to its credit, the previous government, the oil industry in Canada has supplied tremendous prosperity. It is investing $41 billion in Canada in 2006. It paid governments $27 billion in 2005. The contribution to individual Canadians in terms of training, mobility of labour and immigrant training just by one company alone, Suncor, amounts to millions and millions of dollars.
The industry is supporting education in NAIT. Twelve per cent of Syncrude's and Suncor's workforce is aboriginal. It is also investing $100 million in contracts with aboriginal companies. Suncor alone is investing $100 million to eliminate trucks in the mine sites, therefore having a tremendous impact on SOx, NOx and CO2, plus other technologies such as CO2 collection and re-injection.
One of the industries that party and that member like to slag is in fact doing a tremendous amount to help the environment while contributing tremendously, with a job impact in Canada of over 500,000. Would my hon. colleague not like to cut an industry like that just a bit of slack and give it some credit for doing the job in an environmentally friendly way as much as possible?