Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. I think it's fair to say that NRCan is committed to responsible, safe, and sustainable development of natural resources. The context for the policy environment around this particular motion and element certainly has a lot of different considerations and circumstances.

Natural Resources committee  I think it's fair to say a number of different elements and aspects of different reviews going on around the country address a number of important points. The NEB is looking at the review of the Arctic offshore drilling. You heard earlier that Newfoundland and Labrador are doing a response and a review of offshore drilling on the east coast--

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, to return to the point, it's a fairly complicated area. There are a number of different aspects to the policy environment, and certainly there are a number of different reviews under way throughout the country, all interested in the same aspect, which is to ensure that we have a robust regulatory regime that can provide safe, responsible, and sustainable development of natural resources.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Certainly there's an expectation that the findings in the NEB hearings, as well as a number of the persons and groups seeking status, will address that issue. As you probably heard from Gaétan Caron earlier in the week, there are four areas. One of those is how to respond when things go wrong.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. Thank you very much for the question. As Mark has indicated, NRCan is a participant in the NEB review, and of course we're watching actively as it gets under way. In terms of the comment about safety measures that exist for emergency preparedness and offshore drilling, in Canada at this point each of the arm's-length regulators has a requirement that obligates operators to put in place a number of measures in advance of moving forward.

Industry committee  I'm not sure I understand the nature of your question. Je m'excuse.

Industry committee  I wasn't sure if I understood what you were asking me. Could you repeat the question?

Industry committee  I do not agree with you. In Canada, there is a free market for trade in petroleum products. There are always regional characteristics in Canada. The market is highly complex. There are a lot of different factors in terms of transportation, distances, the population of Canada's cities and distribution.

Industry committee  That's correct.

Industry committee  However, I do not agree with you when you say that we are simply washing our hands of the whole affair.

Industry committee  Merci pour la question. When one examines the landscape with respect to the refineries and their capacity, I think a number of factors are at play. Certainly the sheer number, from 44 to 16, suggests that it could be a situation of interest or concern. At the same time, we have to look at the capacity in terms of what the throughput potential is of each of those refineries.

Industry committee  Certainly our analysis is ongoing and regular in terms of petroleum markets and oil and gas markets in Canada, and we do that on a longitudinal basis, looking at trends over time as well as more accurate information. In terms of our assessment as to what would trigger authorities under the Emergencies Act or the Energy Supplies Emergency Act, that is something that would be at the national scale.

Industry committee  Again, we look at the macro situation across the whole country with respect to the capacity that exists within the refining sector, as well as with the oil and gas operators. Of course, they operate on two levels. They operate at the level of the upstream and the downstream, as I mentioned earlier.

Industry committee  Well, I don't think serving you here at the committee and providing testimony is wasting anyone's time.

Industry committee  From our perspective, the competition in the petroleum sector or the oil and gas sector is not in the purview of the act under which we would act. We monitor markets and we certainly monitor oil and gas prices and crude oil sales and movement of product. To understand what is going on, we use Statistics Canada data and we have agreements with all of the particular producers and companies so that we can understand what is happening in the marketplace.