Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I was worried about coming to Ottawa, after Calgary had its way with Ottawa on Sunday at the Grey Cup, so thank you for the invitation and that I haven't been kicked out of the building. It was a good game, and it was about time, so I'm very pleased for the Stampeders.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you.

Natural Resources committee  I think the first challenge—that there's a general recognition we need something—is already overcome. The second challenge is going and talking to the provinces and the various industrial sectors, and saying you're serious. Then they will start listening. It's not going to be easy.

Natural Resources committee  A model like that might work, but the issue there is twofold. One is that because of the funding structure, they are always beholden to a third party. It doesn't really matter what organization you work for; you always know where your money is coming from and you make sure you don't piss those people off.

Natural Resources committee  It's a bit of both, and I'll speak from the perspective of information coming from Statistics Canada. At the Canadian Energy Research Institute, we use a lot of Statistics Canada data. We use it for our economic models for input and output analysis. There's a lot of information behind those tables, and it's very vital that the information be gathered, vetted, and then put into the tables themselves.

Natural Resources committee  Let me speak to the last part about being supported in the private sector. We had a very disappointing meeting about this time last year. We got on the phone with all these stakeholders, and they said, “This is a great thing. We should do this. It would be wonderful.” Then the next question was who has money for it?

Natural Resources committee  There was silence, right? They said, “Let's get the federal government to do this.” That was basically it. They all love the idea, but there's very little money floating up to put towards it. Would it last in the private sector? I don't think so, unless there were some assured funding streams on which it could depend.

Natural Resources committee  The kinds of debates we're going to have in this country are often going to be between the federal government and provinces. If one of those governments has control over this data agency, it will always be suspect by the other. When we talk about our proposal for an independent agency, it's where both the federal government and the provincial governments are involved in the governance and no one has complete control.

Natural Resources committee  It goes to the role that you want to have the different governments play. If you want them to have a direct governance role where they're on a board of directors, for example, that's one model. Another model is just providing funding; that's a second one. There are myriad approaches you can take to get towards something that's a collaborative approach between the provinces and the federal government.

Natural Resources committee  We don't work in the same way the United States does. There's a lot of collaboration among the different provinces. The Council of the Federation is a really good example of that. I don't know if we have to go to the U.S. model. I think if there's a way to take into consideration the approach that provinces are working with the federal government right now, maybe we should start there.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the opportunity to address the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources on the concern regarding energy data in Canada. I'll start my remarks with my recommendation that Canada establish an independent energy data agency using a governance model similar to that used with respect to the U.S.