Transport committee  I'm not an expert on the insurance, but in our discussions with the operator, the rail lines themselves, they tell us that they are able to access that insurance market on a risk basis that would be sufficient for them to cover it.

Transport committee  I can take that one as well, if you like. The short answer is yes, as much of the growth in the North Dakota Bakken oil in the U.S has gone up on the rail system. It has been building their loading facilities. As we look here in western Canada to loading facilities and unloading facilities in other parts of Canada, clearly the state-of-the-art equipment that's going in for the new facilities should be put in place, and that's what we're looking for, to make sure that's in place.

Transport committee  I do, Mr. Greg Stringham. The answer to that is we rely on the rail company to provide the insurance, but we will pay the cost. It does not get transferred to consumers because the price of oil is set on the world market. So it's that cost that comes back to us, but we are willing to contribute to that through our tolls, the same way we do on pipelines.

Transport committee  Yes, I can comment on that. As we were looking at the new cars that are on order, I think 80,000 is a number that is much higher than we've seen out there. As we look at the older legacy DOT-111s, there could be a lower number in Canada. But as you well know, sir, they are moving across the border back and forth all the time.

Natural Resources committee  There definitely is. In North America we operate in a very integrated market. You've seen on the pipeline maps that it is very integrated. We take the market forces for that. Travelling all the way across the country, versus moving from New York up into Quebec and other markets, makes it hard to compete on the transportation side.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. I'll comment very quickly because I know you're short on time. First, on pipeline safety, the newest pipelines that are being built right now are being built with high technology and a great deal of redundancy and safety in place. It constantly has to be improved and demonstrated that that's the case.

Natural Resources committee  Let me start with the idea of market diversification, because I think you hit some very key points there, in particular with natural gas. Natural gas right now is stranded within North America, but what that has done is it has led to a resurgence in the petrochemical industry in Alberta and other places as well where they have this lower cost feed stock that's going and creating other things that are out there because it's competing.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. As we look at the window of this, as you mentioned, and as I mentioned in my presentation, we are relative latecomers as Canadians to this market. Australia has been there for several years, and is actually moving ahead very quickly. We also see the discussions going on in the United States.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. Typically, if you look back two years, the North American price was relatively equal to the international global price, transportation adjusted. Right now, what we see at least on the disconnect between the world price and what we call the landlocked oil price—so that's Canada and the U.S. and block in Saskatchewan and Alberta—of a minimum of $15.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that's exactly correct. The new technology they are using gets them within 2% of the U.S. average. That U.S. average is from 2005, so we think it's moved around. The easy way to say that is it's very comparable, from a greenhouse gas footprint, to the oil they are producing at that plant.

Natural Resources committee  I think there have been two things. I'll talk about a lot of things in the oil sands industry, but it also applies to the natural gas industry. Water use has gone down for the amount of production, which is going up, so they're finding more ways to reuse the water. For the oil sands in particular, they have been using water out of the Athabasca River and they want to try to minimize that.

Natural Resources committee  They're still using water significantly from the river. Essentially, it's just less than 1% of the total Athabasca River flow, but that's over an annual period. The real concern is during the low-flow periods. That's why these offsetting lakes are important, so that during the low-flow period, they can draw from a different source.

Natural Resources committee  The benefits of the development of this resource are such that we are drawing on all of Canada and beyond Canada as well. For our supply chain list, we simply went out and said to name the companies they are working with in these other provinces. There are over 600 in Ontario.

Natural Resources committee  That's coming from offshore sources in the world oil market that range from all the way in the U.K. and Norway to Africa and the Middle East.

Natural Resources committee  I'm not sure if that's Quebec alone, but that region does import oil from Algeria, for sure.