Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to appear in front of you today. I have reviewed all the previous presentations and minutes from all the other sessions, believe it or not, and I can see you've had a fairly rich diversity of perspectives on this topic.

Finance committee  Certainly. We have companies that operate in Canada that are global entities. We have U.S.-based companies. Certainly, we have a lot of Canadian-owned, Canadian-driven companies, as well. So we get those opinions, too.

Finance committee  There are a lot of business drivers. A lot of these companies are in different segments of the sector. They're in different conditions in terms of what their exposure is to debt and equity markets, so they're looking at longer term, shorter term, cost implications, and where they're at in the innovation technical cycle for their businesses.

Finance committee  Oh yes, absolutely. I think it's pretty common. There are quite a few, actually.

Finance committee  Thanks.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. I think you'll see more opportunities like that come forward that will change the game for our economy.

Finance committee  I guess that would be a good interpretation. Our membership at our association has as diverse a view on carbon pricing, and how it's to be applied, as the Canadian public has, more than likely. However, the one thing that is common across it is that we understand this is an issue that needs to be addressed, we have been addressing it, and through all the diversity of opinions around the methods, we will continue to address it.

Finance committee  There are different estimates, but total economic opportunity forgone is anywhere from $11 billion to $25 billion per year.

Finance committee  There are estimates that are higher, and it changes over time, depending on the differential price international markets versus North American markets, but it is significant.

Finance committee  Certainly, we have looked at that hard. As you know, we have a number of jurisdictions in which we operate, primarily in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, that have a variety of different instruments where we value carbon and do activities related to that. There's been, for example, in Alberta quite a significant amount of work on GHG reduction mitigation policies.

Finance committee  Our approach to this is very much from the opportunity space. We know that putting a price on carbon drives the kind of innovation that we are seeing in our sector. That is really a lot of what's driven us forward. The energy efficiencies that we've created in our sector has been because we've put a price on carbon, ourselves.

Finance committee  Approving a pipeline is only part of the equation. Getting it constructed and flowing a product to a market that's willing to buy it is the other part of the trick that we're focused on as well. I can give you a couple of quick numbers that may help you understand. There's been some work done by different institutions in Canada.

Finance committee  I don't think there are any numbers specifically around that. If you include just the jobs related to approving a pipeline, there are probably quite a few, including a lot of lawyers apparently.

Finance committee  During the construction phase, it's a pretty heavy economic activity.

Finance committee  Absolutely.