Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to appear today to discuss such important issues as energy security and the oil sands. In French, we are not engaged in the same discussion that you seem to be having with respect to the name of the oil sands.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Cullen. In fact, I often ask myself that question, and the only answer I come up with is that it's ideology. For one thing, they don't believe that climate change is really a problem. So why worry? They don't believe in these technologies, and I'm talking about a belief in the virtually religious sense of the word, when the whole world around us is doing it.

Natural Resources committee  I agree entirely with Mr. Whiting. Your question relates to development of the technology and investing public funds in those technologies. On the other hand, we are putting all our eggs in one basket, when this technology has not been tested. It is still at the research and development stage.

Natural Resources committee  I think we have already fallen very far behind. Some countries have already been investing in this field for several decades. I would like to come back to what Mr. Whiting was saying earlier. All forms of energy are subsidized: oil, nuclear, etc. So we must not think that we are creating a category of exceptions with renewable energy.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me here this morning. I apologize for being late; there was a traffic jam at security. My name is Steven Guilbeault. I am the Deputy Executive Coordinator of Équiterre. I am also co-chair of the international Climate Action Network, an organization of over 500 non-governmental organizations that works with the United Nations on climate change.