Natural Resources committee  I'm afraid I don't have any insight into the specific example you've cited. I would say, though, that it's important to note that new projects, be they pipelines or other facilities, tend to be very long-lead, high-capital investments, and for a company such as Suncor to justify making that capital investment, we are trying to get as much fiscal and cost certainty as we possibly can.

Natural Resources committee  You're right that we do support a general carbon pricing mechanism because we think this supports the proper market reaction in assessing how carbon affects the whole of our economy. We do think measures need to be taken. We think a broad-based carbon tax is the right way to do that, and we think Alberta is taking a leading role in putting that in place, so we're very supportive.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, you're quite right. We do have upstream production facilities in Norway, so we are part of the Norwegian oil and gas sector. I'm afraid I don't have any quick insights into why Norway is so successful at doing what it's doing there, but we are part of the upstream part of that business.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. I think the European situation is, perhaps, quite a bit different from the geographical challenges that we have. I think I would agree with you that participation from the Norwegian government in their oil and gas sector—and I understand it's a very close participation—does make them very knowledgeable and able to help and participate where appropriate.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. I have deposited the full text of my statement with the committee clerk. I will try to shorten my remarks to allow more time for questions and further discussion. My name is Steve Reynish, and I am the executive vice-president for strategy and corporate development with Suncor Energy, Canada's leading integrated energy company, employing over 10,000 Canadians from coast to coast.

Finance committee  Let me say I think yours was a very good summary of where we're at. We are planning at Suncor for a two-year horizon for these much lower prices. I think we do see that volatility is back in the market, and I think we'll see some big swings both up and down going forward.

Finance committee  I would say it's a market solution, but I think it involves all of us—obviously industry, but I think government has a role in a lot of this as well.

Finance committee  The comment I would make—and I hope I'm getting to your question here—on the question of pipes is that the key thing is to connect the resource with the market. That's what the pipes are for. I don't think it's about the labour involved in actually building the pipe, although there are real jobs.

Finance committee  I'm not quite sure what the 400,000 number is but let me make a couple of comments. I think some of the analysis I've seen that does resonate with me is, first, I think we found out that for Saudi Arabia the last three or four years at $100 or $110 Brent and with very little volatility, if any, in the market did not work for them, if you like.

Finance committee  Yes. The second one is that you read a lot of reports that they need, socially, a much higher price themselves. I guess we don't know what's in their minds and we don't know how it will play out, but I don't think we think this current price will stay forever.

Finance committee  I think it does. Of course, that just means there is less cash for services, as we were talking about. It impacts taxation. It impacts everything we do.

Finance committee  It is enormous. Yes, that's the Suncor position, if you like. It's that a $10 change in the price we receive results in a billion-dollar reduction in our cashflow over a year. I think I was just trying to put some context around the scale of the issue.

Finance committee  Let me add to that. That was the announcement we made. It was 1,000. It's right across the company, so many locations around Canada would make up that number. What I was trying to describe was that this is part of a longer-term journey in terms of moving our cost profile down. However, there is no doubt that the current dip in oil prices has caused us to accelerate those measures and look at them more closely.

Finance committee  No. Foreign workers are the last resort for us in terms of employment. We have very few. I think there are maybe a dozen or so foreign workers working for us currently. It's minuscule in the scheme of things. As I tried to point out in my opening remarks, we find that it's one of the higher-cost options for us in terms of labour, so our policy remains “the more local the better” in terms of employment, and then we move from there.

Finance committee  We did announce a reduction of 1,000 people. That is a combination of some part-time, some contractual workers, but it does include some full-time positions as well. You're quite right. There was a lot of investment that's gone on in terms of training and experiences being provided.