Natural Resources committee  As I said earlier, that's probably a good question for the government. It's not such a good one for me. I don't know at this stage. The government has decided to extend it for a year, and sometime between now and March 31 of next year, there will have to be another decision as to whether to extend it further, whether to extend it for a longer period of time, whether to increase or decrease the rate.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I've heard something about that idea. It could be the people in the department are more familiar with it. I haven't heard much about it recently, but certainly finding a way to get cleaner power into extraction of natural resources is worth pursuing. There was money put in the budget, $50 million, to try to find technologies that can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas sector, and so I think, as came up earlier in the discussion, part of what we do as we move to a cleaner society is look for new technologies, but also look for ways to extract resources in a cleaner way.

Natural Resources committee  I certainly have been involved in discussions with companies and others that have been advancing the potential for small-scale nuclear. One of the places where it comes up is in getting power to remote communities. There's nothing per se in the budget for that, other than a reference to trying to increase our efforts to get cheap, reliable, clean power to remote communities.

Natural Resources committee  I think up till now, at least as far as I'm aware, it's been mostly receiving information from private sector companies that have come to say there is this potential. I think going forward probably they'll be a little more of an interactive dialogue on this. I should just say it is one of many options that we can consider and one of many issues, frankly, to consider in something like a Canadian energy strategy, which talks about how we get energy where it needs to go in this country and in what format, and how we can use new innovations and technologies.

Natural Resources committee  Certainly. This tax credit has proven to be quite attractive for the mining sector, and in budget 2016 it was decided to extend it. It's a temporary credit, so it needs to be extended every year if it's going to continue, and this year it was decided that it would be extended. Certainly people in the industry will say that's very important, particularly at a time when we see low commodity prices across the board, but in the mining sector in particular.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. Could I just make a commitment to come back after we talk to our Department of Finance colleagues about exactly what the numbers are, and we'll be happy to give you what we can?

Natural Resources committee  My understanding is that the NEB numbers would be going up, although I might be caught. We have an interesting situation right now because we have the main estimates, followed by the budget. Obviously, anything that was in the budget is not included in the main estimates, but my understanding was that the numbers for the NEB were going up.

Natural Resources committee  Perhaps what we could do to make life easier for all of us would be to take an NEB number that consolidates both the budget proposal—and it is still a proposal at this stage—with the main estimates and give that to the committee so you understand.

Natural Resources committee  My understanding is that these appointments will be made consistent with the government's new appointment policy that was laid out in the past few weeks. The government will be making these appointments consistent with that, in what I understand to be a very transparent process, so I'm expecting that there will be a lot of public information.

Natural Resources committee  As the minister indicated in his remarks, this year a number of programs sunsetted or ended at the end of 2015-16. They were in a basket called “clean air agenda” or something to that effect, and it was energy efficiency, clean technology. Those programs were set up over a five-year period, and they were scheduled to expire at the end of last month.

Natural Resources committee  In a couple of those questions, I think you're asking why the government decided to do this or that. Rather than respond to that since I'm part of the public service, I can explain to you some of the things that I understand people are saying and why the government might have chosen to do what it did.

Natural Resources committee  I cannot speak for the government concerning policies, but I will ask the assistant deputy minister, Glenn Mason, who is responsible for the forest sector, to talk a bit about what the program was like in the past. As for the future, the government will have to make a decision.

Natural Resources committee  You are correct, the program has ended. As for the future, that is a question the government will have to answer. The government decides what programs will be implemented. As the minister said, $1 billion will be injected over the next four years in clean technologies or in various energy-related technologies.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. That program is very important for the forest industry. I will ask Ms. Ramcharan to give you more details on the breakdown of the funding. That program is among a large number of initiatives in this sector whose goal was to provide assistance and encourage renewal in the wake of 2008-2009.

Natural Resources committee  No. Thank you.